The daughter of the girl on fire
by Whirlpool833
Summary: Kayla Everdeen, the daughter of the girl on fire. The girl always knew her parents took great part in the Great Rebellion. She always knew her Mom was the spark who began it. She always thought she'd be safe. When a new president steps up, who is against the rebellion, she is put in great danger, a rebuilt arena. Forget the fire, she will need a flame to survive. (SYOT closed)
1. Prologue

I was at school, we were in our history lesson with Miss Yin. She pointed to her blackboard and straightened her glasses. There was a list of the happenings, "The Hunger Games", "The Quarter Quell", and "The Rebellion".

"We once had to enter the treacherous Hunger Games, where children all your age would go and fight others in an arena, 24, and only one would go back out, except one female and male who changed the rules." She turned towards me, and smiled warmly. "Kayla, would you like to tell us what happened?"

I stood up and went up to the front. Everyone was staring at me, some in awe, some nearly green with envy. I took a deep breath and said aloud, "Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, my mom and dad, came from District 12, and were the first tributes to fall in love. Katniss had volunteered for her younger sister, Prim, which was very rare in their district. They had earned many sponsors, as the audience went insane over their love, and Katniss had an outfit with a cape on fire in the parade and so was know as, "the Girl on fire". There was no escape when you entered the arena, there was an invisible forcefield and a tracker injected into your arm. They were tricked by the malicious Capitol that they could be together if they were the last two surviving, so when they figured out in the end that one of them would have to die, they performed a stunt which no tribute had ever performed before. They both put poisonous berries into their mouth. The Capitol would rather have two victors than none, so they said they could both go. The lovers spat out the berries just in time."

The whole class clapped. "Wonderful, Kayla, you have a good knowledge on this subject. As you do, could you please tell us what next happened?"

"The wicked Capitol would not let what they did go unpunished. They began the Quarter Quell, the Hunger Games, only with past victors, sending Katniss and Peeta right back into the arena. Because Katniss was known as, "the Girl on fire", she was now known as, "the Spark of the Rebellion". When they were in the arena , however, Johanna Spyri, another female tribute and dug a knife into her arm and took out the tracker! This mean't that a Rebellion team could rescue her from the arena, heal her to full health and have her join. That was when they bombed District 12, destroying it, District 12 no longer existed!"

Miss Yin, looked down at me and said, "It is remarkable how well you know this. You have explained what happened in the Hunger Games and the Quarter Quell, but is it too much to ask for you to tell us what happened in the Rebellion?"

"Not at all, Miss Yin. President Coin of the Rebellion disliked Katniss greatly and did not support her in many things. Katniss played the Mockingjay so they could show clips on TV of Rebellion, in return for the team making sure that she would get to kill the evil President Snow, who had done all of this to her. She wanted Peeta out and alive from the arena. They managed to rescue him from President Snow's mansion. It was slightly too easy to do so, however, because when she tried to kiss him, he tried to kill her. Snow had put tracker jacker in him, so he thought of Katniss now as a mutt!" Tears came into my eyes. "When they went to war, Coin decided she wanted Katniss dead, and sent Peeta with them. Peeta was sonfused as to what was going on, and with so many people telling him what was real and not real. In battle parachutes flew from the sky, but it was unknown who set them off. Her sister died in battle. Katniss woke up, and was told that they had saved Snow for her. There was a big ceremony for her to shoot Snow, but instead, of anger of her sister's death, shot Coin." I found myself crying a bit.

"Oh dear! I am so sorry, Kayla, it wasn't fair to make you remind you of this, it must've been a very emotional time for you and your family."

The school bell rung, and everyone rushed out of the classroom and headed home. I was about to do the same, only Miss Yin called me over. I was still in tears so she gave me some tissues.

"There now, your Mom was very, very brave in battle. Now, I'd like to speak to you about your academic scholarship. You shall take it next year, for university. You are a year ahead of your age, because you're so smart, and should do great in life."

I smiled as she dismissed me.

I love my life.

I never want it to change.


	2. Chapter 1

I remember when I started school. I was only five when my parents had decided that the ruins of District 12 were not a good place to raise a child. District 12 had become a famous place to go for mourning the deaths of the people of the district, the people who had succumbed to the Capitol. There was an entire graveyard made just for them, each with their own grave, even though most of them didn't have a body buried. This included many people that Mama and Dad knew, such as both of my grandparents on Dad's side and many of the traders in the Hob, the place where Mama used to trade meat that she had hunted for different things, such as fruit or vegetables.

"One of them had their tongue cut out that way he could never speak again." my mother would weep. "And they were made a slave."

And then I always sat beside her, suddenly wishing I could relate to her, somehow. Just so I could know how it felt and be able to comfort her. But because there was no way to, I would just put an arm around her and then wait until she had let all of her sadness out. Afterwards we'd go back home, the exact home in which Mama used to live in, only now fixed and made prettier. Dad had planted flowers around it, while Mama did most of the dirty work on the inside. It was nice enough, only when Mama was soon impregnated with me, things changed. It became harder to live in, they had to make a makeshift bed for me, as there were no shops, only their remakns. I grew out of it quickly, so eventually I just slept with them. Sure, District 12 wasn't entirely an island, like I said, many people visited there for a couple of hours to mourn. But a mourning district? For a toddler?

So, they decided that we should move to a different district, such as District 8. District 8 was where there was the first uprising in the Great Rebellion, so it was a place where we could be accepted. Not treated as royalty, but simply respected, and that was enough for us. When I first went to school, I was immediately already ahead of the class. I had already learned to count to a hundred, I had already memorised my times tables and I already knew the definition of a noun, pronoun, verb and adjective. The teacher immediately saw this and thought I should try out a day in the year above. So I did, and even though I was a bit of an outcast, being a year younger, I really enjoyed it. I fit right in, so they decided to make it permanent.

Fast forward in time and I was now fourteen. I was taking a lot of exams, especially to get the academic scholarship in my next school. I was planning to take English, Maths and History. The History of the Hunger Games, it had always been my strength, being the daughter of the exact female who started the Great Rebellion.

But one cold day, as I was coming out of school, I noticed a girl, about my age, sitting on a concrete. She was unrolling a black sleeping bag, everything she wore was black. Black beanie, black backpack, black jacket, black leggings, even black trainers. However, the person who all of these belonged to, was very colourful. Pale skin, golden hair, blue eyes, they contrasted to what she was wearing. But, a sleeping bag? Out in the streets? She then took out a torch and placed it facing upwards next to the slepeing bag. She then started to unzip it. I knew that these both could mean only one thing, she was homeless, a rare thing in District 8. I shivered outside, it was winter, not cold enough for snow, but still freezing. Would she really be able to stick the night with a sleeping bag and a jacket? I tried to walk past her, but I couldn't just leave her there. She would be so cold. She could have maybe even died! I had to do something! I walked near her, deciding to at least offer some assistance.

"Hello there!" she refused to even look up at me, she was still unzipping the sleeping bag, but I could tell be how much slower that she was now doing it that she had heard me. "I was just wondering if you wated any help. With anything, really."

"I don't need anything." she snapped, resuming to her sleeping bag.

But I refused to give up. "I am sure you do. It is very cold outside, don't you want to sleep inside a nice, warm shelter."

Her eyes drooped slightly, and I could tell that she was tempted. "I am fine outside." she said gruffly.

"You are not fine. You need help. We can get you somewhere you know. A homeless shelter most likely, but for the night you are welcome to come to mine."

Her eyes suddenly met mine, with such hostility that I almost staggered backwards. Her deep sea blue eyes suddenly wishing to drown me. "You are a fool. You have no sense to leave me alone. Be on your way!"

I lost all hope, things really became hopeless. I couldn't help her in any way without making her angry. Sulking in defeat, I began to walk home, the five minute walk, when I heard sudden, fast footsteps running towards me.

"Wait!" I turned around, it was the girl. "Brown hair... blue eyes, I know those blue eyes! What is your full name?"

I gulped, shrinking away ever so slightly. "Kayla." I said. "Kayla Everdeen."

"EVERDEEN!" she shot upwards and was soon lifting me up by my shirt. "I knew it! Your mother, she ruined my life!"

I shut my eyes, begging for all of this to be over. It was just a nightmare, I would wake up from it soon. Only it never ended, and the pain of her hard grip was definitely not pretend. I just had to respond.

"How did my mother... ruin your life?" I whispered, barely able to speak at the sudden change of events.

"She shot Aunt Alma!" she yelled.

"Who?" Mama had never mentioned an Alma.

"Alma Coin!" she sneered.

I then immediately understood what she was talking about. Mama always referred to her as Coin, but never Alma. But then again, she wasn't related to her, she was under her orders, unlike this girl. But how did that ruin her life?

"Afterwards, my mother had been pregnant with me, but she fell to the loss of Aunt Alma. She lay in bed, in depression, and soom grew very sick. They only just managed to save me, and then as soon as that I became an orphan. I once lived in a foster home, for a few years, but I ran away from there, no one wanted me, I wasn't cute or little like the others. Also, I didn't like playing with toys, I actually just wanted to go to the park or something, or climb trees, and just stay there all day, I wasn't like the other kids one bit. Now, I live on the streets!"

"What my mother did has nothing to do with me." I whispered.

"Oh, that's just what you think. I'll let you think that, but our parents have everything to do with how I should be looking at you. You don't deserve to exist, killing Aunt Alma was a crime punishable by death! You should have never been born! When I heard about it, believe me, I did not fall for the "mentally disoriented" act she played."

"Listen, you may not have liked it there, but it is unacceptable to just live on the streets for the rest of your life!" I cried.

"Not for the rest of my life, just until I'm old enough to get a decent paying job." she threw me down to the ground, still glaring at me harshly.

"But until then, you're just fine with doing this? You have to get help!"

"Help never got me anywhere. I am doing just fine on my own."

"Then why did you say that my mother ruined your life?"

She stood there for a moment, not responding, considering what I had just said, before walking away from me, going back to her camp, probably just hoping no one had taken her sleeping bag. I hoped so too, that way she didn't have another reason to hate me. Slightly stunned, I headed home. I needed to speak with Mama.


	3. Chapter 2

I entered my house to find Mama making soup and Dad making bread.

"Oh hi, sweetie! How was school?" she asked.

"Okay, I s'pose."

"Only okay?" Dad said. "Come on! Where's the happy girl who was here yesterday?"

"Well, I have something that'll cheer you up! It's vegetable soup today!"

Vegetable soup was my favourite, but my emotions stayed the same.

"Mama, could I talk to you for a second, after the soup?"

"Bother the soup! I'll talk to you now!" She took out the spoon she used to stir the bowl and handed it to Dad. "You don't mind, do you?

"Why, of course not!" although he said this, he looked anxious.

We entered my parents' bedroom. It is a simple one, even though we aren't poor. White bed and beige wall... nothing too special. They said it's because they think it's not a good idea to waste money on luxury, and to spend it to survive. I suppose that's one of the things I loved about them. We sat on the bed and she put her arm around me.

"What is it, Kayla?"

"I ran into someone today. A girl who had recognised me."

"In what way?"

"She knew I was your child. She said I had no right to be living and that you had ruined her life." she turned to me, her eyes wide in confusion.

"Poor girl. How did I ruin her life?"

"She was Coin's niece! You shot her when you were eighteen, and then her mom died, and now she has to live on the streets!" I spoke sharper than I normally did around Mama.

She sighed. "I will admit, I was byast towards the fact that her family would be depressed." She then began to speak with her serious face. "She wasn't a good person, Kayla. She tried to kill me and your father. She killed my sister, she should've been your aunt."

"Prim?" Mama rarely spoke about her, to avoid depression. "How?"

"During the final battle against Snow, she launched parachutes with bombs attached to kill us all, the ones which Gale had made. She didn't care who she hurt, she just wanted us all dead."

"How did you know?"

"The evidence all added up. She always liked to kill people to get her way, byast to them and their families." Her serious face slid off and then she began to sulk. "You are a very lucky girl, you know. You have Paylor for president. However, she is suffering a serious disease. We pray for her recovery." she suddenly was back to her old, cheerful self. "I should probably resume the soup. Who knows what your father is up to!"

She fluttered out of the room, however I still had one more question.

"Mom?"

"Yes?" her head peeks through the door.

"What would happen, you know, if she never recovered? Who would take over?"

I thought it was a rather innocent question, but she gave me a deep, hard face.

"Her mad daughter."

She slams the door.


	4. Chapter 3

I spoke again with Miss Yin the next day. But this time I asked to see her.

"I know you must be in a rush, but I just wanted to ask you something. We can schedule something instead, if you'd prefer."

"Take your time. I've got all day."

"I know Paylor's daughter will take over if she doesn't recover from her illness. Who is her daughter, really? I am unsure, I would ask my mom but she always changes the subject."

"You are always welcome to talk to me about anything. Paylor is one of those women with a strong voice, able to get her way by fighting with words. She only kills if necessary. Meanwhile her daughter is a bit more... extreme."

"Is that a bad thing?"

"I'm afraid, in this case, yes. She had a certain distaste for the Rebellion, she thought it was unnecessary, and that they just got many people killed. She also worries about overpopulation, and that we're going to have to do something about it. She wonders about making a one-child-policy, but then there would be people who already have two children, and they'd have to pick one or the other, an easy cause for depression."

"So, what will she do, if she does rule Panem?"

"She will do what we did before. And since you are top in the class, History and English, you may know what that is."

"I think I know. With the evil President Snow ruling, different children, one female and male from each district, were forced to enter the Hunger Games." I suddenly realised what she mean't. "So, are you saying, if she rules then the Hunger Games are going to happen again?"

"I'm afraid so."

I went into a sudden frenzy of panic. "What if she decides to target me, because of the rebellion?"

"I hope that doesn't happen, Kayla. I'll tell you what, I know teachers aren't supposed to have favourites, but you would definitely be mine!"

My eyes went wide. "Really?"

"Of course. You're early everyday, you always put your hand up, you have always handed in your homework in time, and you're very smart. A lot of other students could certainly learn from you!"

"Thank you, Miss Yin. It means a lot to me."

"Plus, I don't know if she'd target you, or Coin's nearest relative. Coin was never married, but I know her sister had a daughter. We just have to hope Paylor recovers, for you and her sake." she looks at her watch. "You musn't be late home, you should probably leave now. I am always free after school, so you're always welcome to speak to me."

"Thank you, Miss Yin." I threw my backpack over my shoulders and left school.

The girl wasn't waiting for me to come out, which was very good, as I was not in the mood to argue once again with her about why she shouldn't hate me.

* * *

When I got home, my parents were holding hands, and waiting for me to step through the door. They seemed to be strangely happy. There smiles were very wide, and they had a feast spread out on the table. I looked up at themm, I was quite perplexed.

"We have some news for you, Kayla." Mama spoke with an upbeat charm.

"However, this is one of those kinds of news which you either are delighted or furious, so we hope that you are the first one."

I was unsure whether to be excited or worried about this "news", so I just let out a small smile. "You guys know I don't like surprises! What is it?"

They looked at each other lovingly and revealed the news together.

"You are going to have a brother!"

"What?" I was amazed by the news. "A BABY BROTHER!"

"Try not to shout, dear." but she was giggling. "I hope you are happy about this."

"Happy? I AM THRILLED! THANK YOU!"

We all laughed together and started on the feast. It was my favourite, roast chicken! It even had mashed potatoes and rice on the side! I knew this was to celebrate the arrival of the baby! I loved children so much, they have the sweetest faces and think they know whatever is going on, in their own little imaginary world.

"It took a long time to agree." Mama said while at the table.

"It took her fifteen years to agree on having one child." Dad laughed and dipped into the large portion mash and shoved it into his mouth.

"I hope that he doesn't inherit _that_ from you!" she smirks as I giggle.

For desert, he had made a wonderful cake, with blue, buttercream icing. It even had strawberry jam in the middle. I munched on a whole slice happily and then, when I was done, looked longingly at the half-eaten cake.

"This is a special treat, Kayla, you can eat until you get sick!" Mama pointed out as she saw me looking.

"That is a very kind offer, Mama, but I will still be sensible with what I eat." but then I looked at it for at least another minute and took another slice.

"That's my girl!" Dad exclaimed.

After the feast, we were all very tired, so we decided to go to bed early. They tucked me in as normal and then when Mama left, she smiled at me.

"Tomorrow's a weekend! We also have very special plans for tomorrow. Nighty-night now!" She slowly closed the door.

I couldn't stop thinking about all I'd do with my baby brother. I pictured us playing in the park, swinging from trees and eating ice cream! Nine months will go by so fast!

However, something that also caught my mind, was that if Paylor's daughter would rule, then not only I might be in danger, but that girl would be too!

I manage to dismiss the thought be thinking about the ice cream with my brother.


	5. Chapter 4

As I came downstairs, my parents were acting very different. Mama wasn't smiling, her face was hard and stern. Dad wasn't skipping, his back was arched as he walked. They weren't too old, in their thirties, but they acted as though they were ninety. She was wearing her simple watch. She never wore watches in the morning. Breakfast was very simple, an egg with some slices of potato. Very strange. Yesterday, she said we'd do a special treat, but she sat down next to me and played with her egg. She nibbled on some corners and then claimed to be done. She saw my face question her strange behaviour and she told us what we'd be doing.

"I am teaching you how to fight for yourself." I gasped. Mama said that she would teach me when I was older, but I thought about another two years. I am only fourteen. She shoved a bow and some arrows into my arms. "Meet me downstairs in five minutes."

I have always had a thing for not taking long to get ready. I put my brown hair into a long braid down my back and throw on a brown jacket and jeans. I was downstairs in two minutes. Mama looked down at me and sighed. Did I do something wrong? I was unsure, but she led me outside and into the woods. She had brought many weapons with her, a knife, a rope, a bow and a sheath of arrows, a slingshot and a spear. I thought it was rather unnecessary to do this, but something told me it wasn't right to point it out when she was like this.

"We are going to see which one of these you do best at. With weapons, it clicks immediately which one you should use. Everyone needs to know how to use the knife." she handed one to me, similar to hers. "Let's begin."

We practiced using the knife, and I didn't turn out to be too bad at it. I managed to do all the moves she taught me, not quite as hard or as quick as her, but I had only just started. At the head she nods her head slightly, as if to say, good enough. Next we use the bow. I turned out to have terrible aim, which was a shame because I knew that was Mama's strength when she battled. I noticed that this hit her hard, because she seemed to look a bit disheartened after I missed every shot. I thought I may have even seen a tear drip from her. I didn't mean to miss where I was aiming, but I was almost certain that this wasn't the weapon that really, "clicked" for me. My guilt was almost as large as Mama's disappoint. We then moved on to the rope. I had learned some traps that were very common in the Hunger Games, which somehow I managed to learn off by heart. I know some simple traps. Mama is quite impressed at my knowledge of traps, and shows me a very elaborate one, inescapable for the targets. I manage to do it, with some flaws, but still working nearly just as well. Then came the spear. I found the spear very light and easy to throw, and I hit the target nearly every time. Very different to the bow. The slingshot, however, was just like the bow for me, however no heavy guilt to weigh my arrow down.

"Your strengths are the knife, the spear and traps. Your weaknesses is the bow and arrows and the slingshot. Keep those in mind." she checked her watch. "Time to go." she sighed. "Everyone in district 8, even us, though we could live the Victor village if we wanted to, must attend. If not, they are slaughtered publicly." she hurried off in the direction of home.

"What must we attend?" I suddenly shouted. "WHAT WILL YOU NOT TELL ME?"

She turned around. "You'll find out. As soon as we get home, quickly change into your blue frock. It is your prettiest, and we must arrive looking sharp."

As soon as we got to the house and she opened the door, she gestured for me to get inside fast.

"You know I don't like surprises!" I cried, and rushed off into my room.


	6. Chapter 5

Even though all I wanted to do was stay and mope in my room, I did not want to be slaughtered publicly, so I quickly got dressed into my blue frock. I stared at my reflection in the mirror. I didn't look right. I looked plain, too plain. What I liked about blue, is that it looks good with any colours. I had a couple spare colourful flower crowns in my wardrobe, maybe in this case, it would look just right. I took one out and wrapped it around my head. I was right, the blue and the other colours worked perfectly. I would stand out from others, and I looked very innocent, at least eleven, whereas I am fourteen. What would Mama think of it, though? There was only one way to find out.

When I went downstairs, she looked up at me and started to cry.

"Mama! What is it? Is it the flower crown? I'll take it off right now, if you want!"

"I am so sorry! I have hidden the truth from you, I didn't want you to be worried!"

"It has to do with the thing we must attend today, doesn't it?" she nodded slowly. "Mama, I know this isn't the best time, but please, tell me the truth about everything."

She looked at her watch. "I wish I could, darling, but there's no time. We have to go, right now!"

"What about Dad?"

"He is waiting for us there! I didn't want to leave without you!"

We gripped hands and began to run. It was relatively close, but we didn't want to take any chances. We didn't have anyone to dart pass, except the occasional person who has also realised how they had to rush. We do get there eventually, huffing and puffing, letting out buckets of air and then shoving another back in. Dad came to meet us, he didn't say anything though, for a bell had rung, as if to tell everyone that it had started.

A woman stepped on a large stage. She only looked about sixteen. She wore a fancy jade top, which made the shape of a M at the front. Her leggings went down to her knee, they were the same colour as her top. She had curly black hair, down to her elbows, and had big, bronze eyes. She looked absolutely striking, however people around us began to shake in fear, as her cunning glance and devious smile sent shivers down my spine.

"Greetings, district 8. We have all gathered here so I can speak of an important subject. I know this is in short notice, we apologise for any inconvenience." she didn't look the slightest bit sorry. "As you have known, Paylor has passed away, therefore I, Freya, must take charge."

What? She had died? What happened? How did it happen? I realised I was being dragged upwards by my parents, I must have hit the floor. This must have been the truth Mama had been talking about!

"I look back now, in history, and I see the rebellion. The whole thing was very unnecessary and we must note, not only half the Capitol were killed in this. Innocent people, with no say on which side they were on, were killed, just for being there. The truth is, the Hunger Games was the one thing that kept Panem in control, and it was the most efficient ways of doing it. So, I believe that we shall begin doing the Hunger Games from now on."

Everyone gasped. The Hunger Games? They were supposed to have never started them again after the Rebellion! There was a tense moment of silence in the audience, before we were interrupted by a girl, being brought up onto the stage by a Peacekeeper. It was the girl I had met on the streets!

"We sweeped the entire area, miss. We found one!" he held her up roughly, giving her no chance to escape. "What were you doing?"

Despite everything that was happening, she remained calm. "I believe I would much rather be publicly slaughtered than going to this event."

"If it's a public slaughter you want, it's a public slaughter you get!" he raised the sword he was holding. "And we can do it right now!"

I covered my eyes, I didn't want to watch her die, despite how horribly she treated me.

Freya, however, held up her hand. "No. Leave her be." she seemed slightly smug about this.

The Peacekeeper looked quite disappointed as he left the stage. The girl was about to do the same, though Freya gripped hold of her shirt. She shoved her onto a seat and ordered her to stay there. I was confused, why would she let her live? I was pleased to see that she hadn't been slaughtered, however I didn't let it show.

Freya continued to what she was saying. "All other districts are right now having their reaping, as you will do as well, but I especially wanted to do District 8. You may be wondering why, so I will explain. After the Quarter Quell, District 12 no longer existed. So this would mean only twenty two tributes would enter the arena. I thought, personally, that this was too low a number, so I have picked on two extra people to do it. The people of the Rebellion cannot be let off on this, they must be punished." I began to notice two guards standing right behind us. "The leaders of the Rebellion were Katniss Everdeeen and Alma Coin. I have tracked down both of their children to be living right here!" they stepped closer and I began to shiver even more. "This girl right here, is Lola Coin! And she is not the only one! Kayla Everdeen!"

I went pale at the sound of my name and my parents shrieked in horror. The Peacekeepers picked me up and and carried me to the stage. I noticed Miss Yin watching me, she waved with a sad smile. She pitied me, shame Freya didn't though. She sat me on the seat next to Lola.

Although she tried to look like she didn't care, she was shaking really hard.

Almost as hard as me


	7. Chapter 6

It was very clear that Freya had targetted not just us, but other children of the Rebellion. In district 2, a boy who's father's name was Gale got picked, and the grandson of someone named Haymitch was picked, both two people who played a role in the Rebellion. Another included Johanna Mason's daughter, as well as Finnick Odair's cousin. Most people mainly had their eyes on us though, as we were the ones who were personally picked by Freya. It really wasn't fair, we had done nothing wrong. We never were in the Rebellion, we weren't alive in the Rebellion, we didn't even have a say in the Rebellion! All because of our parent's doings, we have to enter.

We were whisked off into tiny pods. Normally in the Hunger Games, at this point, our families would be allowed to see us for about five minutes. I would have loved five minutes with Mama, only Freya wanted nothing to do with them. Also, Mama would probably be planning an assassination for Freya, and she couldn't risk her own life, only all of ours. I was banging against the glass, attempting to escape, but it was full proof, nothing could destroy it. A large bomb wouldn't make a dent in the entire pod. We were pulled by some force, like a magnet into our seats and driven off into a black tunnel. I squirmed and kicked, but the force was keeping me in the seat. They had been very prepared, making sure there was no chance of escape.

It was only a half-hour journey, but because I was so worried about the Hunger Games, it felt like hours and hours. I didn't want to kill anyone! They were as innocent as I was, and as scared as I was. Even if I was especially good with traps and the spear, I'd never be able to use them against any body! When we finally arrived, we were taken into small rooms and asked to get some rest. The lights were shut off and I was left in quite a large, beige room, with a very luxurious brown bed and a pair of pyjamas on the bed. The bed posts had black paint, still slightly wet, clearly all of this is brand new. There was a big balcony outside. A balcony! Maybe I wouldn't have to kill anyone, maybe I could just jump off! I took off my flower crown and messed up my hair. I put some paint on my face! No one would tell it was me! I prepared myself, and shut my eyes.

This would be it.

I am going to a better place.

I jumped...

And was thrown back by a large force! They had put a forcefield there, to make sure we couldn't commit suicide! I get up, wipe the paint off my face and sob. There was no use! I could never escape! They were forcing us to enter, whether we liked it or not. I cried loudly, throwing my face onto the bed.

"Hello?" A shadow entered my room and turned the lights on. It was Lola! "Could you keep it down? I trying to sleep!"

"Sorry." I sulked.

She sat beside me. "There's no point being soppy about it. I have to enter too." although she spoke roughly, I felt mildy comforted. She then took a closer look at me. "Why is there a bit of black paint on your face?"

"Um, is there?" I tried to be cool about it, but I said it too quickly for it to sound truthful.

She then looked on my balcony and caught a glimpse of my footprint, on the rims. All the pieces came together. "You tried to commit suicide?"

"Yes." I was shame-faced.

"Wouldn't reccomend it. You know the grandson of Haymitch? He was a previous victor, however deep down, he won nothing. The forcefield throws anything back, not just people, but he used it to his advantage. He went near the forcefield, and then ducked when he saw the axe come after him. It went straight back to the other person and killed him. The Capitol killed everyone he loved, his parents, his siblings, his girlfriend. Now, he is in his old ages, but still drunk in the alcohol he drinks every night to escape the pain." she looked at me again and then walked off. "I shouldn't waste my time on you. Tomorrow's the Opening Ceremony, who knows who our stylist will be." she walks off slamming the door behind me.

I felt quite comforted by her.

I was soon sleeping.


	8. Chapter 7

I was woken up by a large bell, dinging at us to get up and have breakfast. It wasthe last thing I want to do, but I reluctantly rose out of bed and threw on my dressing gown. My hair was a mess, but there was no point in sorting it out. After breakfast, the stylists were going to style us. Mama had once told me about what her experience with them was like, that they wax your entire body and soften your skin. It didn't sound so bad, but she shuddered remembering.

Everyone had breakfast separately. The people from each district. I would be sitting with Lola to eat, while our stylists prepared our outfits. I was worried about our stylist, what if Freya asked them to make us truly hideous? I felt a sudden burn of hatred for the new president. They called her "a president" but no one voted for her, there was no democracy, so why does she get to tell us what to do? Why did she even rule in the first place?

I run downstairs for breakfast. Lola is sitting down, chewing on her egg. I noticed she wasn't using cutlery, she was eating it with her hands. She noticed me looking at her and quickly dropped her egg on the plate and grabbed hold of her fork. I assumed she was so used to her life on the streets, she hadn't been introduced to the simple table manners in a long time. This may sound slightly amusing, but I had no laugh to stifle. Even though I had never been forced to live on the streets, I understood everything that she was going through, so I also got some bacon and eggs and sat opposite her. There was a silence lurking, and it was quite melancholy, so I thought this would be a good time to bring something up.

"I wonder who our mentor will be. Regularly I would think the son of Haymitch, but he's competing with-"

"Against." she corrected.

"Sorry, competing against us."

"That's a good question." I think that was the first time she had agreed with me for anything. "I'm not sure we even will get a mentor, most of victors to this day are dead, but who knows?" she struggled to eat with her cutlery, she wasn't used to it.

"You can use your hands, I don't mind."

"No, I have to get used to doing this."

"If anything, eating with your hands is better in preparing for the Hunger Games. There won't be any silverware in the Hunger Games." she seemed to consider the idea, but then shook her head. "In fact, I should be preparing too." I dropped my cutlery on the table, grabbed a piece of bacon and munched on it while she stared at me in disbelief.

But soon, she was doing it too. My home self would be appalled by my strange behaviour, but sometimes you have to adapt to be able to survive different surroundings. We ate until our plates were nothing but crumbs and then someone came to collect us to have our prep team give us a makeup.

I was taken into a completely white room. White walls, white floor, white sink, white bath, everything was white. Three different women came in. Each one looked very bizzare. One was died pea green, one was covered in golden tattoos and one had her up so high, it was about six inches long. I assumed this was my prep team long before they had time to stare at me. They whispered among themselves before speaking to me at last.

"Well, you're in good shape, very pretty, and we like your hair." one piped, nodding their head in approval. "But we need to see the rest of you. I apologise if this makes you uncomfortable, but would you please take off your gown?"

I expected them to ask this, however as I took it off, I still felt embarrassed. They examined me briefly before chatting among themselves again. Even though they seemed nice, I was worried about what they'd think of me. Finally, one told me what they thought they should do to me before my stylist showed up.

"A simple hairdo would work well with your style. A touch of blush would make your cheeks stand out slightly more. Your legs could use a shave." one said bluntly.

They waxed my legs, painfully ripping each one off as I gritted my teeth in attempt to stifle the pain. Sometimes I did have to let out a yelp. When they were done, I hardly recognised them. They were absolutely immaculate, however words couldn't describe how vulnerable I felt. They gave my entire body a small spray of something called, "Honey Glow". I managed to catch myself in a mirror, noticing how pretty I looked. My hair was very simple. Two braids starting from the front, meeting in the middle of the back of my head and making a small ponytail. They added some rose blush to my cheeks and then the look was complete, they let me put my gown back on. They circled around me with smiles on their faces.

"How can the audience not fall for you? You look divine!"

"Thank you." I smiled. "Do you know when I can see my stylist?"

"He is coming as we speak! Our work is done!" they said in unison and trutted out of the door.

My stylist came about a minute after they walked out. He was wearing a black leather jacked and jeans. His expression was stern.

"You must be Kayla." he said. "Welcome. Please follow me."

I followed him out to a garden outside. It was very pretty, with different flowers all around us. There were cherry blossom trees all around, pink petals fluttering down as if to greet us. Robins flew all around us, chirping loudly a sweet song. There was a pleasant atmosphere, but I wondered why he would lead us to this place.

"I go here when I need some time alone. No one hears anything over the chirps of the robins."

"Of course."

"You will steal the audience. You will make Freya think twice about messing with you and your family. No one will ever forget you." he spoke fast.

"Yes, sir."

"Don't call me sir, call me by my real name, Cinna."

"Cinna?!" I gasped. Mama had mentioned Cinna to me many times. She said he was very good person, always helping her, and that she may not have won the Hunger Games if it weren't for him.

"After my uncle, who's now dead because of those stupid Gamemakers. He got himself killed to save your mother, you know. President Snow had ordered him to make her wear a wedding dress for the interview in the Quarter Quell. He did put her in it, only with a twist. He made it so that when she twirled, it turned into a stunning Mockingjay outfit. The audience fell for her, but afterwards they killed him right in front of her." he sighed. "I will continue his work, and give you something more exquisite than any other stylist could even imagine, let alone make!"

I froze, speechless. I opened my mouth to speak, but no words came out, so I just nodded.

"So, I checked, and the opening ceremony is taking place on dead grass. The flower crown really suited you in the reaping, so I thought I would develop this idea." he smirked slightly. "I hope you have no allergy to pollen."


	9. Chapter 8

There I was, standing in a large, dark room, every tribute around me. They were making conversation, they were being quite loud. I was in a striking pink gown with red roses attached. The flower crown I wore was the same as my old one, though he had painted atound each petal, so they stood out more in the camera, but I didn't care. I was amazed. This must have taken him hours and hours, just so I could wear it. And for his own revenge. The opening ceremony is key to getting sponsors, though some do splendid in training, many who fail the ceremony get no shot at a single sponsor. Many dress in the same outfit as the other tribute, so I wondered what Lola was in. That was when I realised she wasn't there with me.

As soon as she was late enough to get worried, she was escorted inside by her prep team, though she clearly had gone against the whole idea.

"I am perfectly capable of walking!" she attempted to shoo them off.

"It's just to... wish you luck! Very rude to leave you to walk alone!" one piped, clearly struggling to not lose it, however Lola was less successful.

"JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!" she was so loud, there was a momentary silence as the prep team hurried off before everyone resumed to talking.

She stomped towards me, and then I realised what she was wearing. The stylists of different tributes always work together, so I was surprised that he had gone for a completely different angle. She wore a black suit, however it had many hints of a blood red pointing downwards. She wore a long, flowing capes, with spikes coming out of it. Her stylist clearly wanted her to look more hostile than me. Her hair was a mess, however with her gorgeous long locks of gold, she could maybe just get away with it. Just.

"How could you let them do this to you?" she clearly noticed my beauty that the prep team had placed on me.

"It's not a beauty competition, but the more attractive tributes get sponsored." I shrugged. "The Capitol is very weird that way."

It was then I noticed, her hair was a mess and she wore no makeup, not even a dot of blush. "Did you not let them do it for you?"

"Why should I?" she spoke harshly. "I won't let them corrupt me into worshipping the Capitol. They give us all this luxury treatment for them to stay in power! The more fun we have before the games, the more empowerment over all of us they have. Don't you see?"

I found it harder to "see" than she did. I saw what she meant, how they wanted to keep us from going against them, but I saw it as no reason to refuse the treatment from them. I didn't do it for the sake of making myself pretty, I just want a helping hand in the games.

She saw my confused expression and glared menacingly. "Forget it." she turned around and walked away.

I realised what I had done and rushed to amend things. "Lola! Wait!"

"I said, FORGET IT!" she yelled loud and rough.

I didn't have time to react, for a bell rang, telling us to get in our order. Since we were replacing district 12, we were last of all the districts, which I didn't like, because the audience might be bored by the time it comes to us. We stood in sections of of us, from district 1 to us. That was when I noticed an attractive boy from District 11, he had dark skin with light brown eyes and hair. His district was known for growing plants, so he wore an oufit made of flexible branches and vines, he looked really cool. This may have been the time to make allys! He looked nice, he turned to many people and waved, though few returned them.

"Hi!" I waved to him.

He seemed quite shocked that I had done so, however waved back at me, slightly confused. "You must be the Kayla Everdeen everyone has been talking about."

"Everyone?" I gasped.

"No, no, no." he laughed slightly, but a friendly laugh, not a mocking one. "Just that Freya had actually come to your district to personally select you."

"Oh." I let out a sigh of relief. "What's your name then?"

"Colin. Colin Mainstone." he smiled. "District 11."

"Your costume looks amazing, everyone's going to be placing bets on you."

"No one would waste money on me, when they've got a flower princess! Look at you!" he sighed. "Also, I'll find it hard to kill anyone, though I excell at martial arts and camouflage."

"I'm good with the spear and making traps. I am okay with a knife."

"If only we could blend our strengths together-"

He was interrupted by people shoving him forward to go outside to the audience. I decided I really liked Colin, he seemed really friendly, maybe he was a possible ally! I turned to tell Lola about it but she spoke before me.

"Don't even think about it. Don't trust him. He seems friendly, but deep down he is already planning how to kill you. Trusting others doesn't make you stronger, it makes you weaker, and that backfires in the games."

"We aren't going to kill each other."

It was our turn to enter the outside. We both tried to forget our arguments, and present ourselves walking, smiling, pretending we don't mind that we are going to die soon. But Cinna suddenly ran up towards us and whispered to each of us to hold hands and shoved them together before we could object. But that was that, we had to hold hands. As I stepped onto the dead grass, they turned into roses. I wanted to stop and discuss the logic of this, but I had to keep moving forward. I couldn't help but look down on Lola's side, and notice hers was turning into thorns. I could see by her face that she was equally confused but we both just kept walking. The audience went wild for this, cheering for us with a large roar of applause as we walked by. Some even threw me roses, so I just kept adding them all up together, until I had a masisve bouquet of roses. I noticed on the large TV screen at the end that they had tried to show others, but it was impossible not to keep going back onto us. I was still confused why they asked us to hold hands, though, as it was weird to present us as friends when we had to turn savage against her in the arena. When we finally got to the end, to Freya's mansion, instead of her greeting us inside, she had butlers waiting for us. She probably didn't want to see that we had done so well, and as she was watching this, she was probably ripping her hair out because we did so great. I giggled at the thought of it.

As we entered the room, we immediately received glares from many tributes, mostly because we had done so well, partly because they would want to rip those outfits right off our backs, with a few centimetres of our flesh. We had to stand in our districts, however I could see Colin smiling at me, as if to congratulate us. I returned the smile with a wink, ignoring the look of Lola's face.

Now that the ceremony was out of the way, all I could think about was why our stylists made us hold hands. Maybe it was something to do with outfit? With my pink gown and roses, I resembled a rose. With her black suit and spikes, she resembled a thorn.

A rose and a thorn are very different, but they both grow on the same stem.

It was a metaphor for my relationship with Lola.


	10. Chapter 9

The next point in the games would be the training sessions. Mama had taught mea bit about how to use the main weapons, however I still wanted further teaching. It was a large room, with many stations dotted around it. What I liked about it was that it was a good time to observe other tributes and noting down their strengths and weaknesses. We are already people to envious of, Lola and I, after the success in the opening ceremony, however not really of us, of our stylist, Cinna. Cinna had done an amazing job with my outfit, I was beginning to wonder what my interview outfit would be like. But for now, my training outfit was tight, but flexible black leggings with a loose, purple top, which of course had a rose on it. I liked being the rose, they are a bit like me. I may look shy, timid, and incapable of defending myself, but I have my own thorns to prick others.

I decided to do each station with different people, to know what each of them was like. Lola and I didn't see each other, I thought this was because she was still mad at me about Colin. But I really wanted to know him better, and so we did most of the stations together. It was ubsurd how good he was with camouflage. He could paint himself into a tree, and I would walk past him and then scared by a tap on my back. We did an exchange, one hour of me teaching him spears and traps and one hour of him teaching me camouflage and martial arts. I was pretty hopeless at camouflage, my worst subject in school was always Art. I never thought it really mattered, until now.

As we were practicing making a decent knot, a girl came over to our station. She was really, really pretty, with sandy blond curls and fair skin. She walked over to us and stared us down. There were only two wooden posts to practice the knots on. She looked at us with big eyes, as if it was obvious, we were mean't to immediately step away and let her have a go. But we didn't, we carried on as if she wasn't there.

"You know, you can get rope burns from them. And this time they won't be able to cover it with makeup to make it look pretty." it was ironic for her to say that, because she wore so much make up for the opening ceremony, it looked like she had plastic surgery multiple times. "It's also not good to do things that don't suit your style. You know the plants station? They have plenty of dead plants over there!"

I was beginning to burn up, and she could see that, only using it to her advantage. "Wow, they'll try and put on blush and red lipstick, only it will just blend in with it's background.

I was about to let it all out, like a volcano waiting to erupt, but then Colin put his hand on my shoulder. After that, all the rage just melted away, it was very strange. He seemed very calm about the whole thing.

"Aphrodite," he said, "you may want to try out this station, however we were here first, and we can only leave in our will. You can't take it out on other people. There are many other stations, you can try them until we leave. And then, you don't waste time negotiating with us, when you could be learning how to set traps or even wrestle."

I looked at him in admiration. I wished I was as mature about everything as he was. Even if he was very modest about his outfit for the opening ceremony, he looked a little proud of himself after saying this, as he should've been. Aphrodite tried not to lose her cool, however she looked furious. And that was when I realised, it wasn't anything to do with having a go with the knots, she just wanted power over us. When she was about to throw a fit, another girl came over to us, acting very defensive over Aphrodite.

"Why would she be wasting time? She could be learning to wrestle right now, with you two as her dummies, however your weakness against us is too pitiful." I could feel Colin starting to boil, like I did, so I quickly put my hand on his shoulder.

The girl took out her hands into a claw-like pose and dug her arm into Colin's chest, causing him to fall backward. I rushed to him, as the girl giggled an innocent but evil laugh and took hold of a rope. I wanted to kill her, but it was illegal to harm tributes before the games, however clearly she had already just done that. I threw his arm over my shoulder, dragged him into a toilet cubicle and shut the door. He immediately sat on the toilet, as in using it as a chair, not in the way most people would think. He was holding back tears, so I immediately knelt to his side.

"How hard did she punch you?

"She didn't punch me hard, but her nails are sharper than knives!" he was trying so hard not to groan and wail, I felt bad for him.

I would have to nurse him slightly, but the pain he had was in the chest, and I found myself quoting my prep team. "I apologise if this makes you uncomfortable, but could you please take off your shirt."

I could tell this surprised him, but he did as he was told. Then I wished I had never asked him to do so, his wound was bad for just a shove. The punch would fade into a harmless bruise, but where her nails had dug in, there was a chance of there being a large scar. He clearly saw my face, and then watched it turn into pure embarrassment.

"It's okay, Kayla. It'll be fine. You should get back to training, though, there's only about thirty minutes before they'll send us to our rooms."

"I'm not leaving!"

There was a sudden sound of a door opening, footsteps entering the bathroom and the sound of two voices coming in, they were the ones of Aphrodite and that other girl.

"Why did you bring us here?" we heard Aphrodite say.

"No one will hear us here." and then of the girl.

The door slammed shut.

"What do you want, Angelina Fierce?" Aphrodite spoke with clear annoyance, but then I knew her name, Angelina."I could be painting my nails right now!"

That's right. Not training, not making allies, not getting your way, but painting your nails. That's the kind of person you were.

"I came to speak about something that's on my mind. You see, you and I are very similar. We both are really pretty, we both are in all the boy dramas."

"I don't chase drama, it chases me." I could hear her tone getting more aggravated.

"Same! Exactly! That's why we'd make good allies, don't you see? Look, I can already see that literally all the men have crushes on me."

Colin mouthed, "Heck, no", to me. I had to stifle a marathon of laughs.

"So we could use it to our advantage! We'll have so many male allies, and then we can just stab each one as they sleep. They'll be so lovestruck, they won't see it coming!"

"Mmhm." I could tell Aphrodite was considering it.

"So, what do you say? Me and you, against all of these idiots in the arena, we'll be unstoppable."

There was a pause before she made a decision.

"Fine." she said. "I could use an ally who wasn't a freak."

I heard their footsteps following out the door, until we heard it slam shut.

"They're the idiots in the arena." he said, a small sense of anger in his voice, however we have both learned the remedy to drain it. "They're semi-decent in battle, I've seen them in training, however they can't assume that all the men will immediately ally with them. I wouldn't over my dead body." he began to imitate them. "Oh, Coooolin, I feel so weeaaak, let me killll- I mean, kissss you!"

We started laughing so hard, I swear a tear rolled out of my eye.

After we came out of the bathroom, the training was closed and we were expected to go to sleep. Although he repeatedly assured me he could handle a night, I immediately lead him to the medic. I wanted to stay with him, however the nurse kept telling me over and over again that he would be fine and that I should go to sleep until I had to leave. As I left the room, I saw a brief shadow of a girl wearing a beanie, and watched it fade quickly. Lola now knew I had taken him to the medic! I rushed to my room to ask myself, why can't she just accept him for who he is? Why does friendship have to be so complicated?

But, was it? I couldn't sleep in my room, I kept tossing and turning around in my bed, longing for Colin to be there.

Longing for Colin to be there?

Colin...

I had feelings for Colin!


	11. Chapter 10

I had never had a crush before, I didn't know what to expect. I didn't realise I would truly never ever get him out of my mind. I tried thinking of other stuff, as if my mind was having a conversation with itself. I started with happy things.

"Remember when Miss Yin said I was her favourite?

"Oh yeah, I wish I was Colin's favourite."

That didn't work. I tried another one.

"You're gonna have a little brother!"

"I know right? Would he like Colin?"

I realised that by thinking happy things, it made me think of my future with Colin. I began to talk to myself about my worst memories.

"Lola and I had that huge fight."

"I know! I don't know what her problem is. At least I have Colin for a friend, or even more."

I went into pure rage after realising this, pressing my face into the pillow and screaming loud. I didn't think most girls dealt with crushes like this, I was sure they just went up to them and confessed cooly, and they would either say yes or no. Simple. But I wished we could just go like this, but we couldn't be together even if we wanted to. The Hunger Games would come, one of us will die or even both of us. I just needed someone to talk to, someone who would listen, someone who would speak to me, someone who would stop making dinner to talk to me...

And that someone, I will never see again.

A shadow enters my room, wearing a beanie. Lola. My face crumples as she walks in, she was probably the last person I wanted to talk to. For once, she was not mad at me, she just seemed to be casual. That was when I realised she had snuck me an extra roll from dinner, applaudable enough in the Capitol nature. She handed it to me and sat down beside me. Then I remembered that she had seen me take Colin to the nurse.

"You know, don't you?" I asked.

"Yep."

I felt more ashamed than when she caught me trying to kill myself. "I didn't know."

"I did, the whole time. I knew from the moment you first glanced at him that you found him attractive." she sighed. "I tried to warn you, I tried to keep you away from him. It was for your own good. Why didn't you just listen to me? None of this would have happened."

"I-I didn't know. I didn't know this would happen."

"I suppose you couldn't have known. I will admit, he is very easy to fall for. He is very attractive and has good taste. He is selfless and goodnatured. He kind of reminds me of my past boyfriend."

This struck me hard, I didn't think she was the type of girl who wanted a boyfriend. "You had a boyfriend."

She nodded sadly. "His name was Chase. He and I used to be very close. We'd go to the park and play on the swings every day, taking turns pushing each other. Then we'd go off and buy icecream and we'd try to guess which flavour the other person wanted. If they got it wrong, they had to give two dollars to them to buy what they wanted. We had fun, so much fun, until my mom died. It took her a while to die, too. It took a couple years, we all knew she was at death's door. Then when I lived on the streets, I saw him with another girl. I tried saying hi to him, but he treated me like dirt. Dirt! He shooed me off, it was if he had forgotten everything we had ever done together." a tear strolled down her cheek.

We stayed silent for a bit. All I remembered was suddenly everything blanking out around me, feeling glad that I didn't snore...

"Kayla?" I was shook awake with a start. "Kayla, we slept in the same bed."

I opened my eyes, coming to my senses that we had slept together. We had gone to sleep almost immediately, as if we were comforted by the other. It was probably the most peaceful night I had had since I entered the Hunger Games. The fact that we had slept together though... I wasn't sure whether to shrug or be horrified. I could tell Lola was having similar thoughts, if not the same.

"We should go down to have breakfast." I say at last. "We only have a couple hours of training until our private sessions with the Gamemakers."

After we had breakfast, we went to training sessions together. I searched, but I couldn't see Colin anywhere. I felt worried, however slightly relieved that I didn't have to pretend that we were just friends.

This training, Lola and I did together. We taught each other our strengths, and became closer in friendship. At the end, the girl who had grabbed me by the shirt and told me I didn't deserve to exist was gone. We trained until the bell rang to leave training and queue for our private sessions.

Colin showed up eventually. He had been at the nurse. He tried to look well, but I could tell he was in pain.

That was when I felt a rise of anger bubbling up inside of me.

Stupid Angelina and Aphrodite.

I would crush them in training.


	12. Chapter 11

It was annoying, because you couldn't go inside and watch others do their private session, we had to wait outside. Lola and I would go last, because we were technically replacing District 12. Colin wasn't ready, clearly. I'd be surprised if he was, since he didn't get those extra hours. We had to stand in our districts, and we had to be quiet. Colin and I would have to yell in order to communicate with each other, so I made conversation with Lola instead.

"You got any plans, for what to do?"

She shrugged, with a hint of nervousness. "No. I mean, I'm good with lifting large amounts of weights, and I do good with a knife, but other than that, I don't really know. What about you?"

"I'll probably use the spear, since I can hit the dummy in the heart most times."

As each district went up, the district groups remaining got closer together, until I was able to have a word with Colin.

"Colin, is your wound any better?"

He sighed. "Not really. Still hurts like mad." he saw my worried expression. "It really doesn't matter, Kayla. It'll be fine. I can camoflage well. They have a whole rainbow of paints to pick from in the station."

"Forget the stupid training!" I wailed. "What about you?"

"I am sure it will heal."

"And what if it doesn't?!" I screamed at him. "I don't want you to die!"

"Then it will leave a simple scar." he was then called in by the Gamemakers. "I've got to go, but... wait!" he was soon being dragged in by Peacekeepers. "Just let me tell her!"

In about ten minutes, it would be my turn, just after Colin's. I didn't want to do a whole show for those stupid Gamemakers. I hated Angelina and Aphrodite, for pressuring us, for doing this to us. Why did they need to injure Colin? Why? If he wasn't so forgiving, they'd be rotting around in prison. I'd show them.

It was my turn, Colin came outside, painted in the exact marks of a tree. He smirked at me as he walked by, I think he was trying to indicate to me that he had done well. I felt proud of him, and ready for what I would do next.

I entered the training room, where there were the Gamemakers staring at me with hawk eyes. I took two full body mannequins out, made them hold hands, and placed many balloon dummies in a circle as if guarding the mannequins from any incoming harm. I then walked over to the camouflage station. Colin was right, there were a whole rainbow of colours to choose from, so I dipped my index finger in the red. I brought the two mannequins out of the circle and faced them towards the Gamemakers, I wanted them to see what I was doing. I wrote down a name on one mannequin and then I wrote another name on the other. They all gasped, they knew what I had done.

The names were Angelina and Aphrodite.

I placed them back into the circle of mannequins. I took about ten spears and went to the other side of the large room. I first hit each balloon dummy and watched them pop. They were made to represent the men they would trick to allying with them, the ones so lovestruck, they were easy targets. Each one was hit by a spear, until all that was left were the two mannequins, now easily killable. I threw my spear and it landed on the clasp of their hands, where there thumbs were connected. It went through the hand, making each finger drop. It was very impressive, I could see many of them nodding their heads in approval, especially the head Gamemaker, Florence Monrow. I could tell she was resisting the urge to clap furiously. Instead she was just grinning. I found myself grinning too, glad that they had noticed me.

"You have shown us enough." she said calmly. "You may leave now."

I left with my head held high. Lola looked slightly suspicious of my grin.

"What did you do, shoot them?" she asked, and she wasn't even very sarcastic about it.

I wanted to tell her everything, but she was soon asked in. I loved the way that Florence looked at me, it was as if she really saw promise in me. I had shocked myself more than any of them, it was so unlike myself. The old me back at home would have gasped and begin to cry. But the new me preparing for the Hunger Games was strong and prepared, ready for anything.

That night, Lola and I met up after dinner to watch the training scores on TV. We sat on a small, white couch with a massive screen in front of us.

"So, what did you do for training?" she asked.

"I shot balloons. Oh, and mannequins."

"Cool." she replied. "I chopped up a punching bag."

"Nice. So, let's watch then."

The picture of a tribute would show up, just a headshot, then in a few seconds their training score would show. I remember most of them very clearly, however some made no impression on me at all, therefore impossible to recall.

Aphrodite - 11

Angelina - 10

That was it, I thought. I wasn't going to get over eleven, let alone ten. I gritted my teeth in frustration. All I wanted to do was beat them, and I already lost that.

Yarn Hug - 3

Blossom Whyte - 7

Colin Mainstone - 9

I perked up. A nine? I smiled, knowing he'd be smirking while watching this. I guess the Gamemakers were impressed by his camouflage, he must have also demonstrated his martial arts.

Tilly Sears - 8

Glitterbomb - 6

I couldn't help but gag at the name. Glitterbomb? She was a District 1 tribute, so it was understandable. Children of the Capitol are always given absurd names, it was tradition. Technically, we were quite wealthy, so we could live in the Capitol if we wanted, but Mama refused. She also refused to give me a stupid name, she wanted me to have a proper one.

Lola Coin - 10

Kayla Everdeen - 12

We both stood there, staring at the screen, absolutely stunned by our high scores. We could have stayed there all night, but Lola broke the silence at last.

"You clearly didn't just shoot balloons and mannequins."

"You clearly didn't just chop up a punching bag."

She sighed. "I didn't, I drew a picture of Freya on it. It got their attention, especially the Head Gamemaker."

"Same! I wrote down my two rivals, Angelina Fierce and Aphrodite on the mannequins and made them hold hands. I shot the spear just ever so slightly above the fingers, chopping each one off. She was really smiling at me."

"I agree with you, I can't stand those two tributes. Almost worse than," she coughed, "Glitterbomb."

"Ugh, that name."

"Glitterbomb has absolutely no strengths, however her powers to lure you in to her crazy. She volunteered for the Hunger Games, she claimed it was because someone who was totally useless was picked, however she shoved people who wanted to volunteer too out of the way, covering each one's mouth. Anyone with half a brain can see it's all for glory. She had a sister, Goldass, sheesh, who was desperate for her to stay, but she was so careless and cruel, and just left her."

"Wow. She is a horrible person. She should ally with Angelina and Aphrodite." I meant it as a joke, however she nodded.

"I overheard them in the toilets, adding her to their ally list. They are my first priority to kill."

"Yes." I swallowed, because I knew that deep down I didn't want anyone to die, I just wanted this all to stop.

However, I also knew that deep down I wanted to kill them all.

So, who am I, really?

Am I the kind, scholarship young girl from home?

Or am I the cruel teenager from the arena, prepared to slaughter each tribute?


	13. Chapter 12

The next day had come. The interview was going to be tonight, so I would have the first day to practice, with my stylist helping me to get the right impression. I was worried about what the audience would think of me, I didn't know which part to play. I had dazzled them with my rose dress, I had shocked them in training, but this would be the firt time they would really get to know me. Me as a person. And I wasn't prepared to show them.

I stumbled downstairs, tripping as I walked to breakfast. It was eggs benedict today, a favourite of mine. Lola sat there already, twirling her food around the plate. There were big, dark bags under her eyes. Her eyes drooped down so they were about to hit the floor. She struggled to keep her head upright, I knew this could only mean one thing.

"You didn't sleep last night, did you?"

"Nope."

I didn't ask any further questions. I knew she was worried about the interview, though she would probably have failed to admit it, even to me. My plate was soon finished, and I was tempted to lick the plate clean, however I thought the eating food with my hands was enough. Also, I didn't want my face to get too messy before the interview, not for my own sake, for the sake of the audience not having a reason to turn away as soon I came on stage.

As soon as our stylists came in to tell us that they were ready, I noticed what Lola's stylist looked like. She had blonde, wispy hair going down to her waist. She wore a black jumpsuit. She must have been working with Cinna, to get the rose and the thorn thing working. Lola and I split up, it would be six hours straight with our stylists, while they would teach us how to walk and how to act. As well as that, changing us into our outfits for the interview.

As I reluctantly left Lola, my stylist brought me back to the same garden as he did before the opening ceremony. I just wore a tracksuit, as I didn't know what he'd put me in to help me prepare for the interview. I wondered if he would tell me something private again, as that was what he did the last time he lead me here.

"You must feel worried. You show no signs of stress on your face, but I can tell that you're worried."

I tried to stifle yelling everything to him, but I just couldn't resist. "Yes! I don't want to do it! Everyone's gonna hate me! I don't even know who I am any more!" Out of nowhere, I started crying.

"That's why I brought you here. Let everything out, that way you won't bring it all out during the interview. Now, what do you mean by, you don't know who you are any more."

"I don't know who I am, or what I've become! I used to be an innocent girl at home, I also considered myself kind of smart, I was a year ahead and I had an academic scholarship."

"You must have been smart, then."

"I just don't know! I may also be a ruthless monster!"

"You don't seem like one."

"But I am! During training, I wrote two tributes' names on mannequins and then shot a spear throught them! I am truly a horrible person!" I begin crying again.

He put an arm around me and lead me to the nearest bench to sit down. He lended me a shoulder for me to bury my face in, as I continued to sob.

"Listen, Kayla," he whispered softly, "no character is one dimensional. You're not exactly the guiltless girl from your district, you have shown a worthy spirit to do whatever it takes to live. You aren't exactly a monster, though. Monsters don't regret what they do, they don't criticise themselves for it. You're a mix of many things. You trusted me to make you a great outfit, even though you didn't even know me, you were kind. You were motivated by many things, but also slightly by angering Freya, because of all she did to you. You were vengeful. You aren't simply saint or satan, you are a rainbow of layers."

I thought about what he said for a moment, maybe he had a point. Maybe I don't need to be just one person, maybe I can be many different people at once.

"Thank you." I wiped my face, now that all the tears were over, we had to get down to business. "So, which one should I play as to get the audience to like me?"

"You aren't going to play as one, you're going to play as yourself. The interview is not theatre, it is a simple documentary."

We spent the four hours with him teaching me how to get the audience to like me. It wasn't hard to be myself, I just had to be truthful about myself and my feelings. He taught me a bit about how to walk, which also wasn't hard, as I already knew how to walk gracefully. He handed me over to my prep team for the last two hours and whispered instructions. I really didn't like secrets, so I felt a bit uncomfortable watching them do it, however he assured me it was just a surprise.

If only he knew.

When they were finished, I looked quite stunning. My cheeks looked extra rosy, however in a realistic way, not an absurd way. I had mild dark pink eye shadow, and the tiniest hint of red lipstick. They clearly wanted to keep the makeup to a minimum. My hair they had spent a while on, though. It was very wavy, and had small natural highlights added in, for effect. Then Cinna came in, with my costume hidden behind his back. He refused to show it to me despite how much I begged, and threw it over me. It felt comfy, like a warm, cosy blanket. The shoes felt very similar. He dragged me somewhere, probably in front of a mirror and then finally let me lift my eyes up.

I was amazed.

It was a deep scarlet red, so dark it looked almost purple. There were rose imprints covering the dress, all the way through the long sleeves. The dress was down to my knees, long enough so it wouldn't lose the colourful vibe, however short enough so I wouldn't have trouble walking in it. I stood there, staring at my reflection.

"It's... incredible." I stuttered.

"We thought we'd stick to the rose and the thorn vibe."

"I don't know how to thank you for this."

"Just that is enough."

He lead me towards this room, where each tribute waited there to have their interview. Cinna had to leave from there, though I found it hard to let go of his hand.

"Just remember, they will love you for who you are." I watched him as he walked away from either my moment of triumph or doom.

I took a deep breath before opening the door.


	14. Chapter 13

Everyone was wearing different clothes, it was as if there was a moving rainbow in the room. I searched for Lola, only she wasn't there, so I assumed she was still getting ready with her stylists. I managed to catch a glimpse of the three brats, Angelina, Aphrodite and Glitterbomb. Though they were all wearing different colours, each one was tight and short. It was so tight, it made them look very skinny. They were hot all the way. I gagged while looking at them. Angelina's was red, Aphrodite's was blue, but Glitterbomb's was shimmering gold glitter. She had bothered to wear fake eyelashes too, which were also gold. Her leotard even had a tail trailing behind it.

I was so busy taking in my surroundings, that I didn't even see Colin coming towards me. He looked very cool, his outfit was a deep azure blue shaped to be a bit like a bird.

"Hi." he said.

"Hi. I hope you were proud of yourself for the nine you got! You did amazing!"

"That's ironic for you to say, considering you got a twelve! I am curious as to what you did, you must have amazed them!"

I suddenly hesitated a bit before replying. "Um, I wrote down Angelina and Aphrodite's names on the mannequins and shot them."

"You did what?!"

I went into a frenzy of panic. "No, no, not like that! I mean, I just wanted to impress them and..."

But to my surprise, he started laughing. "I suppose they called it upon themselves. They need to learn the lesson to not mess with my Kayla!"

My Kayla? Did he just say my?

"Are you okay, Kayla? You're shaking hard."

Was I? I blushed scarlet in embarrassment. "Um, I'm fine."

"Are you... just nervous about the interview?"

"Yes!" I lied. "Just so... nervous!"

He let out a deep sigh, "Phew, nothing too serious. You weren't sick!"

Did he care about whether I was sick or not?

"You won't even need to try, you've already amazed them so much. They'll be naturally attracted to you!"

"That's kind of you." I blushed even harder.

"Ugh, why did her stylists put so much blush on her?" Angelina fake whispered loudly to Glitterbomb.

"It's not blush, the poor thing is threatened by us, look at her scared little face. Shame she could be killed simply by shoving her over and killing her with her own knife." she fake coughed. "I'm getting germs just standing here, only these two seem more well adapted to it, bless them. But this is clearly not the place for us." she swivelled so her back was turned to me and her high heels clattered as she left us.

Angelina and Aphrodite quickly scurried wherever she went. I then realised how they were being used, Glitterbomb was the main villain, whereas those two were her henchmen. It was a bad idea for them to agree to allying with her, she was too manipulative, cocky and convincing for her not to be the leader of the group. Even both of them put together seemed liked a lesser version of Glitterbomb. When they left, I went back to scanning the room.

While I was, I noticed a little girl standing in the corner of the room, playing with a ball of yarn. She only looked twelve, with her little pigtails and freckles. She wore a little colourful sweater and a tiny skirt, the stylist clearly wanted her to be portrayed as innocent. And it was working, she was so little and frail, she did not belong in an arena. She looked up at me and melted into the corner slightly, hugging her yarn tight, bless her.

"No wonder why she loves that little ball of yarn so much." he saw me staring at her. "Yarn Hug, her name is. The poor thing was supposed to take over her Mom's pillow shop when she was nineteen, only she was reaped."

"And no one volunteered for the little thing?"

He shook his head sadly, "I think she's from your district, Kayla. When Freya came, she didn't even ask for anyone to volunteer for her, she was so focused on keeping you and Lola in her control."

I was there, then! How could I have been so oblivious to her? If I hadn't been reaped beforehand, I would have definitely volunteered for her! I guess I was just so nervous and frightened that I wasn't aware of my surroundings.

I didn't have time to respond to him, soon we were told to stand in our districts, and wait for our turn to be interviewed. Lola quickly ran to meet me, in a black, tight jumpsuit with flashes of red in the shape of thorns. She looked really cool, I wished I could have told her that, only we weren't even allowed to speak.

Glitterbomb went first, as she was female and from District 1, the luxury district. She didn't bother to respond carefully to anything, she just answered with a yes or no, but not in a solemn way, in a way to get more into her. While she was responding, she was filing her nails or fiddling with her long hair, forcing us to stare at her. When the buzzer went off for the next person, she looked as though she didn't care whether she failed or not and walked off. She had won the audience in her own way.

Angelina went on next, she looked very pretty, however Glitterbomb had clearly stolen the angle she wanted to appear to for the audience, leaving her to make up a different strategy on the spot. She did something quite appalling, she began to publicly flirt with the interviewer. The audience was stunned by her behaviour, and so when the buzzer went off, her audience was wide-eyed and hardly able to look at her. Then Aphrodite came on with a different angle entirely, completely cocky and oblivious to the fact that these were Hunger Games.

"Every tribute is just so mean to me, I mean, it's not my fault I am so pretty." she complained. "And it's not like I wasn't called Aphrodite for a reason. They're just so jealous when they look at me!"

The interviewer looked very relieved when the buzzer went off for her.

Then came a curly red haired girl on stage, named Blossom Whyte, who played the role of being very vengeful and as fiery as her flame red hair.

"My parents disowned me, all because I was just some stupid girl!"

"You don't seem stupid, with that great seven in training! You seem really smart!" he saw that she was getting angry, and was trying to change the subject.

"I am smart, smarter than at least half of these stupid tributes. However, because I was a girl I was put in a stupid foster home, and even spent a year living in the streets! My stupid parents were fools!"

As the buzzer went off for her, Lola was nodding her head in agreement, clearly she could relate to her.

Next was a girl who I had never really seen before, her name was Tilly Sears. In the interview, she was pretty, however unlike the other three girls, didn't use it for her advantage. She played the role of someone who just wanted to protect her sister.

"Alice, my younger sister, was picked." a tear somersaulted down her cheek. "It wasn't... fair. She didn't deserve it, if she died I would be a dead person on Earth, usless and broken."

The interviewer was actually trying hard not to cry. He had to get someone backstage to pass him tissues, and to be honest, I struggled to keep calm myself. When the buzzer went off, she got a roar of applause from the audience.

Then came itty bitty Yarn, looking as adorable as ever. She played the role of innocent, a role which perfectly suited her. She brought her ball of yarn on stage as a little fiddle toy for her to play with during it.

"I may be little, but at least I won't have any cold nights! I can make a blanket out of anything!"

"You can?" he looked very surprised.

"Oh yes! A very common death in the Hunger Games is to freeze to death, so I got that covered. So, at least I shouldn't be counted out of it."

"I wouldn't in a million years." he said assuringly.

Then came Colin Mainstone, playing the role of a charming, likeable boy. He was very kind to the interviewer, not letting him get put under pressure. He described the deadly tributes as being the mean girls in school, getting a lot of laughs. He also got a roar of applause from the audience, while I stared at him in awe.

Then, it was my turn, right after him. I walked up on stage gracefully, and immediately got applauded as I went on stage. I guess they liked my opening ceremony dress and my training score enough to expect a good result in the interview.

"Hello, Kayla. Fancy seeing you here." he won some laughs immediately."You're only fourteen, however you have been so remarkable, especially that twelve in training! How did you feel when you figured out?"

I thought I should get some laughs while I was at it. "Well, it was a first."

Everyone starting laughing and applauding me at the same time.

"Your dress, too, it looks splendid. You clearly are a wonderful flower."

"A rose. It has many different petals and many different types, no one is just one-dimensional." I quoted Cinna.

"Wow, you are very smart, aren't you? Luckily, that will come in your favour for the arena."

"I am sure it will, intelligence always triumphs over strength."

"I am sure you are strong too, after that twelve!"

"Guess it's just another one of my petals."

This I got applauded for too, before the buzzer went off, and then I was greeted with a sudden rocket of applause. I had done it, I had won them over entirely! As I strutted off stage, I felt rather pleased with myself, especially when I high-fived Colin afterwards.

Then it was Lola. Lola had decided to be a bit more ruthless as she spoke. She compared the different tributes to different knives.

"Glitterbomb... well she's the curvy knife." there was a roar of laughter after that.

Even the interviewer clearly struggled to not laugh. "That's a very... good way of putting it. What about Kayla?"

Now this I was curious about. I really hoped she would describe me as a good knife.

"She's a knife with a cover on it. A good one indeed, when she takes it out." she got a round of applause for this.

I rather liked the way she portrayed me as a knife and decided to applaud too. I also knew that she didn't really have a choice, now that the audience was practically on my side, if she had portrayed me as something else, they would have voted her off stage.

"Even people like me have got to watch out for her, even though they aren't very visible, she does have thorns."

"Yes. However, you are the thorn! Your ten was very impressive, how did you feel when you got it?"

"I thought that's what I deserved, it wasn't my best go."

"Wasn't your best? A ten is very hard to get, and you achieved it without even trying?"

"Yes." she got a lot of laughs from this.

She also got a roar of applause from the audience when the buzzer went off.

So Lola and I both managed to get the audience's attention, we may even have gotten some sponsors.

However it was bittersweet.

Because it meant we were getting closer and closer to the arena.


	15. Chapter 14

The next day came around before I was ready for it. It would be my last couple of hours until we were forced into pods and driven to the treacherous arena. I would have to truly stuff myself during breakfast, and eat varied things, for it was a foolish idea to enter the arena hungry. It was a death wish. I could even be dead that day, I shivered at the thought of it.

Lola, as normal, was already awake, and the black bags under her eyes were darker and larger than the yesterday. This time I didn't even need to clarify that she hadn't slept the last night. However, there was one thing about her that definitely wasn't there before. A large cut, right on her wrist. We had no access to any knives, there was only one person who could have done it without.

"Angelina Fierce." she saw my face and immediately knew I wanted more information. "Glitterbomb made her do it, for calling her a curvy knife on stage. I'll make sure that I'm the person who kills her!"

"I am sure you will." I said assuringly.

"I could go injure her until she couldn't move, right now, but I want a fair play in killing her."

We truly packed varied foods in ourselves until we were restless. We had a couple hours of free time before we were sent to our stylists. As we were walking outside of the dining hall, we saw Florence leaning against the wall. She looked the furthest from ordinary, the typical dress code of the ones who are filthy rich. Her entire body was dyed a sky blue, and she wore gold lipstick and gold eyeshadow. Her hair was black, but not naturally black, it had golden shades dotted all around it. Her olour contacts made her eyes shine an unrealistic bright emerald.

"Lola and Kayla? I need to talk to both of you." she stated as a matter of factly.

I gasped. Had we done anything wrong? Had Freya changed her mind, that she wanted us dead before the games? Or even worse, she wants us to be pre-injured and bleeding as we enter the arena? However, I didn't ask these questions as she lead us into her office.

"You must hate us. You think we make you do this."

We said nothing, because she had read right into our souls.

"I want to tell you something. This is all Freya. We have nothing to do with the Hunger Games, we weren't even asked for an opinion. Do you really think I wanted to be made Head Gamemaker?"

There was a moment of silence, because we both assumed she had volunteered for it.

"Your training scores were signs of rebellion, you know that right?"

This surprised us a bit. We didn't really do them in rebellion, we did them in pain and anger. Then again, that is nearly the definition of rebellion.

"However, I'll admit, I was impressed, and as well as that, you two will need all the help in the arena you can get. Freya entered you in the Hunger Games so you two would die in the worst possible way, and she wants no chances of either one of you surviving. She did not expect either of you, let alone both of you, to win over the audience. It would be suspicious if both of you got a twelve, and if one of you got an eleven, so I gave Kayla the twelve and Lola the ten. If you were both from different districts, selected at random, you would've both gotten twelves."

She took a deep breath and waited to see our reactions. She didn't have to wait long to see our gaping mouths in shock.

"I am going to tell you, though, that as long as I'm Head Gamemaker, everyone is going to have a fair shot at winning. I am forced to make certain events, however I can decide when and where they happen. I don't target people, these are games, rules stay rules, no one has disadvantages. It's like a video game, with little sponsors as power ups to help, but it's still fair."

As I was about to speak my opinion to this, she checked her watch and dismissed us from the meeting, saying we best run along to our stylists now. But as soon as we left the room, we were discovered by wandering Peacekeepers and taken into custody. We weren't hand-cuffed or anything, but they set us up so we couldn't escape. They forced us to separate against our will, and then took me into a small, white pod before finally leaving me alone. A large metal ladder came down, and following my first instincts I leapt onto it. I thought they would make me climb up the ladder, however they were so paranoid about people escaping that I was immediately glued to it like a magnet. The ladder was dragged upwards so I was on the second floor, however as I was looking up it looked a lot more like the floor was coming towards me. When I finally reached it, a lady with a monocle and white lab coat came towards me, holding a tranquilliser and a clipboard.

"Kayla, I am going to inject this tracker into you." she said. "Just stay still, and this will be over with very soon."

OW! I gritted my teeth in pain as the tracker entered my skin. As long as I had it in me, the Gamemakers could track me, making sure I could never somehow escape the arena. The lady trutted off as the ladder finally released me from it's tight grasp. I considered jumping back on the ladder, quickly climbing down and attempting to escape, however with the tracker in my arm, the very idea was applaudable in itself. I wouldn't have had time either, because Cinna soon entered the room with my outfit for the games. Everyone got the same thing, and unfortunately, not even him got a say in what it was. However, there was a rule, you were allowed to optionally wear a harmless token from your district or your family. They check it very hard first, Mama told me that when she wanted to wear her Mockingjay pin, it barely cleared it, with many people thinking it could be used as a weapon. He brought with him a simple, but beautiful rose hair clip, and fastened it to my hair. We carefully opened a cardboard box, which carried the outfit which everyone would wear for the arena. It carried a black full-body suit, the sleeves going only until the shoulders, with a tiny jumper to go with it.

"It is designed to reflect body heat. Expect cold nights." Cinna said after holding it up and inspecting the fabric. "Won't do well in everlasting heat, however it seems quite water-proof."

He was supposed to help me get changed into it, however we both clearly knew that I was perfectly capable of doing it myself. After I was fully changed, I gulped down water and took nibbles of food until a glass tube came down to pick me up. Slowly, I entered it, trying to tell myself I was prepared.

"Good luck!" Cinna waved. "May the odds be in your favour!"

The tube whisked me off, giving me time to remind myself what was about to happen.

I could be dead in minutes.

I'm entering the arena.


	16. Chapter 15

After being sucked up a large tube, I found myself swivelling and going downwards a lot, I was dropped down on to a small, metal platform. That was when I began to look around and see what kind of arena this really was. In our History lessons, they say that it could've been anything. Mama said that even one time the whole arena was a desert, and most tributes died from the severe temperatures or went mad from the lack of water. Luckily for me, Freya had not been that cruel, however she had definitely been less than reasonable. All around us was a large jungle, with parrots fluttering around too. The trees were very large, with expanding canopies on top and thick twigs, at least I could hide in a tree if I was ever in danger.

The Cornucopia was in the center of the circle of platforms. The Cornucopia was shaped a bit like a thanksgiving horn, only made out of titanium metal. Before the rebellion, each year there were many things that would be useful in the games, such as a knife, or a sleeping bag. When the buzzer went off to start the games, the most common place for the tributes to run to was the Cornucopia, either that or they fled with no supplies. The beginning was when the most tributes died, mainly fighting for supplies, or not quite making out alive with them. This happened nearly every Hunger Games, so it got given the name of the Bloodbath. It was odd, because there were strange, thin, wooden poles around the Cornucopia. In History, I was once given a blueprint of what it most often looked like, but it was never surrounded in sticks. What would they do against us? Add a less probability that someone would shoot me in the back, because the arrow might just hit the pole? I couldn't figure out why they had done this.

Three minutes went by like three hours, and I began to feel very uncomfortable about being forced to stand on this tiny metal plate and not take a step in any direction, or next thing you know, my body parts will take my place on the plate instead. Each other tribute was standing on a platform too, staring with enlarged, greedy eyes at the Cornucopia. That was when I realised that maybe I should be spending my three minutes doing that too, to select which of the goodies in store was worth it. To my disappointment, all of the supplies were backpacks, each one coloured differently. Each one could have had anything in it! And the worst thing was, a tall spear, the weapon which was my main strength, would never fit in a backpack! I growled under my breath, Freya really, really didn't want me to win, so much that she made sure that there were no spears in the arena. Florence said that she was going to make sure that this was a fair game! The liar!

Before I knew it, the buzzer went off, and I took to my feet. I wasn't the fastest runner, but I was probably fast enough to at least get my hands on a single backpack. As I sprinted up, I saw Tilly Sears, already darting off with three backpacks for herself! Everyone lagging behind me watched her in envy, they probably would have killed her, had they had the right weapons. I managed to get to the Cornucopia before a lot of people, however my instincts told me that I couldn't stay there for much longer, so I only grabbed one backpack before attempting to make a run for the rest of the jungle. Only problem was, I didn't get out quite in time before the battles for supplies began. And unfortunately, someone wanted mine.

Glitterbomb leapt up on me before I managed to get so far. She giggled at me struggling to break free from her strong clutch, and took my backpack!

"Can't blame you, I guess you thought you'd make it further than thirty seconds!"

She cackled a wicked laugh, and I hated not being able to shut her up. That was when I had a sudden adrenaline surge through me, even though I had no weapons, I had to use something! Out of frustration, I then did the unthinkable. I pulled a stick out from the ground and pushed it roughly against her, making her fall to the ground, leaving me to take the backpack. She now had a large wound on her shoulder, where I had pushed the stick in. But it didn't make sense, a simple stick wouldn't have been able to wound her this much, let alone make her bleed. There was no time to think about it though, for I had to get out before Angelina and Aphrodite noticed what I had done. I managed to sprint out of the Cornucopia, making it through the jungle!

I kept running and running until I was almost certain that no one had followed me. I began to feel a bit weary and dazed after the long run, and thought it was a good idea to investigate the backpack and the powerful stick. First I checked my backpack thoroughly and found a ball of yarn, some rashes of bacon, a small, but sharp dagger and dried fruit. I sighed in disappointment, was this really all I risked my life for? Why would I even need a ball of yarn?

After the large failure in the backpack, I didn't even really care about why this stick was so sharp, and able to create such a large wound. Even so, I still knew it was best to examine it that day. I looked at one end, which was strangely smooth, definitely not something that came from a tree. I then checked the other...

I grinned in satisfaction.

This wasn't any old stick.

It was a spear!


	17. Chapter 16

Florence hadn't really forgotten about me after all! She had hidden the spears! I whisper aloud, thank you, hoping the cameras will catch it, and then decide to make a camp here. Camps can never last long, or else tributes will find you in the place that they haven't searched yet. It was a foolish idea to make one on the ground, anyone would notice it. So what would I do now? It was then I remembered a conversation that Mama and I once had over tea. My memory of it suddenly flashes in front of me, as if I'm spectating my own body. It was my first time at a cafe, I guess that's why I remembered it so vividly. I was only seven, so I was easily getting distracted by small things, such as a bird flying from tree to tree or a little ant, crawling it's way through the floor. Then Mama caught sight of me staring in confusion when I saw the workers crushing leaves. My heart crumpled, poor little leaves, I thought.

"Herbal tea, my favourite, made mainly from leaves. Picture that, little leaves on each tree!" she tickled me slightly and I giggled. "You know, when Snow trapped me, I had to hide in a tree in case anyone found me!"

I laughed, "How did one tree do that?"

"Camouflage." She grinned, but I shook my head in confusion.

"What does that mean, Mama?"

"It's when you can blend in to the background of something."

"Camooflage is cool!"

"CamOflage." she corrected me.

I grabbed a tea cup and poured the black tea all over my arm.

"Kayla!" she scolded. "What on earth are you doing?"

I then put my arm on the beige wall and giggled. "Look at me, Mama! I am camooflaging!"

"CamOflage! You naughy girl!" she tried to look stern, but she couldn't help but laugh too.

We laughed until she had to apologise to the Janitor about the mess on the floor. And then we laughed more.

"Kayla." she smiled, but then it turned into a frown. I gasped while watching it, I don't remember any of this happening! After this we walked home and we washed the shirt that I spilled tea on together! "Kayla... _wake up!"_

I woke up with a start, I had slept! I was a fool, had I not been so careful, Glitterbomb could have found me! Even little Yarn could have killed me at this rate! I took all of my stuff and was about to leave, when I saw a strange emblem, probably Freya's, fill the sky. It was red, and had a fire mutt imprinted on it. It showed all the tributes who survived and who didn't. It flashed in the sky for about five minutes before the anthem began again and it closed, so I read the list and memorised who was alive and who wasn't.

The boy and girl from District 4 were dead.

The boy from District 5 was dead.

The girl from District 6 was dead.

The boy from District 7 was dead.

The boy from District 8 was dead.

The boy and girl from District 9 and 10 were dead.

The girl from District 11 was dead.

That would make eleven dead from the bloodbath! It was always the first night when the most people died, but eleven was a large amount of tributes. They didn't mention District 1, 2 or 3, which means Glitterbomb must have survived still with the large wound I gave her. I sulked, and got annoyed at myself for not killing her then, while I had the chance. Angelina and Aphrodite must have saved her, and they were both still alive too! They must have those three boys from their District in their romantic control. I tried to remember the main people from the interview who had survived. Blossom Whyte had survived, as well as Tilly Sears, little Yarn Hug Colin Mainstone and Lola Coin. I grinned, they were all the people who I mainly wanted to survive.

I knew that I would have to go into hiding and camouflage in the trees, where it was safe to sleep. I began to climb the tree, which was hard, because I wasn't the best climber, but eventually I managed to get to the top. It was freezing cold, so I just had to wrap a palm tree leaf around me. It had been hot during the day, but ice cold during the night, forcing you to have to prepare for both weathers. I would just have to grit my teeth and stay in hiding.

It wasn't long before I saw group of allies, but surprisingly they weren't Glitterbomb and her pack of wolves, it was Tilly, Blossom, and Lola, each carrying a backpack. They kept looking around, checking to see if anyone was watching them, shame on them for forgetting to look above.

"It seems safe here, we can inspect our backpacks." she stated finally, as they all sat down in a small triangle. "Lola, you open first, what's in your bag?"

She opened it cautiously, as if there was a hungry lion hiding inside, before saying what she had.

"A raw chicken and a couple of matches." she sighed in frustration. "No weapons!"

Tilly tried to comfort her. "At least you got a chicken, they are very filling, and if you're careful, you can last a week on one!"

I realised in the arena that Lola had an advantage. She lived on the streets for a long time, she knew how to fast.

"Let's see what I got." Blossom opened her bag. "Lets see. A slinghot," she threw it into the jungle for effect, "pathetic. A small bottle of water," this she also threw into the jungle, though Tilly was clearly indicating to her that it wasn't a good idea, "useless. And finally, an apple!" She got up and yelled up into the sky, "I HATE YOU!" and threw the apple in the direction she was looking in.

I couldn't believe she had done this! Who was she talking to? Clearly the cameras, but who did she want to see her? Had she really been stupid enough to publicly go against Freya? She was lucky that Florence was Head Gamemaker and not Freya, otherwise she wouldn't have made it long without dying. In fact, she probably would have been dead by now.

Tilly was flustered, and didn't know what to do, because she knew that unless a really good fight was going on, they were being featured. There was only one option she had, and that was to change the subject swiftly and hoped that Blossom's act of rebellion would go over the audience's heads faster than birds.

"Let's see what I got." she looked inside her backpack. "Oh wow, I have a bow, with an entire sheath of arrows! I'm not great on food, though, only a pint-sized loaf of bread."

"Who cares?" Blossom yelled, kicking her backpack all around. "One weapon, team of three, how's that gonna turn out, huh? HUH?"

Not even Tilly could think of an answer to this question as they silently left the space I was in.


	18. Chapter 17

I began to take in what I had found out just then. Lola had agreed to ally with Blossom and Tilly, however, knowing Lola, she may have the unresistable urge during her watch to stab each one in their sleep, espiecially Blossom. They only have one weapon, Tilly could keep it or share it, and she seems the kind of person who would share it. There would either be a lot of arguing and shoving, or they could come up with a reasonable way to take turns. It just depended on whether Blossom liked it or not.

I would have to move. It wouldn't be long before someone found me up here. But I couldn't resist the urge to come down from my tree and pack the resources in which Blossom threw away, all while being as discreet as possible. As I was trying to find a way to cram water bottle to fit, I realised that she had truly been foolish. Water was sacred to survival, and if you took tiny sips each day, it could last at least a week! Why did she need all of this attention? Then I realised why, she wanted her two allys to fear her, that way they wouldn't even think to betray her. But the question was, was it worth a litre of water? I decided to take everything, including the slingshot, even though I wasn't great with it, maybe it would come in use later.

I was about vacate the area, before I was halted by the sounds of another group of intruders approaching. I gasped and scurried up the tree like a panicked squirrel, and then mummified myself in the palm leaves around me. I would have to be ready to observe them with just one eye poking out of the leaves, and if I was spotted, at least in where I was, I would have at least a ten second head start.

I observed Glitterbomb, Angelina and Aphrodite and their pack of men come into view. They had each boy from each of their districts in their grasp. There was one more, but the way I was looking left vague silhouette of him on a leaf, and it wasn't worth risking moving it.

"Angelina, I told you, I want him." Glitterbomb turned to the boy from district 3, her district.

"NO!" she wailed, grappling on to him. "I WON'T LET HIM GO!"

"Well, what do you want, Ader?" she batted her eyelashes in a begging way. "It's your choice, after all!"

Ader's eyes switched from each one over and over again and then shrugged. It would be the right choice to pick Angelina, but picking Glitterbomb would maybe give him a shot at winning. "Why don't one of you pick? I don't have a preference."

He didn't mean it to be offensive, but Glitterbomb and Angelina gasped in fake horror. There was a long, excruciating silence before Glitter took out a knife.

"Well then, Angelina, if I can't have him, NEITHER OF US WILL!" she suddenly dug the dagger deep into his spine, letting him fall onto his face, blood sizzling from his , for effect, she put her foot on his neck, allowing him to fight for a breath of air, until it was too late.

"Shame to see him go." she sighed, as if she was regretting killing him, though I knew this was all part of her plan. "But it had to be done."

"Now, wasn't that a little unnecessary?" the silhouette boy spoke. "Killing someone because you couldn't decide between each other."

"Oh, Colin! Don't make me feel worse about it!" she started fake crying, however to the other boys it was very real, as they started crowding around her.

But I was just stunned by what she had said. Colin?

Then his entire body came into my view. And to my horror, it was getting close to Glitterbomb's!

"I am sorry, dear." he put an arm around her. "I just don't feel like myself, but at least I have someone to point that out for me."

It was if it was in slow motion, and then I had to cover my mouth to prevent me from screaming as their lips met. I was so lost and confused. Why had he done this? We heard them in the bathroom talking about their plan! He knew it was all fake! Why is he letting himself get killed? And it's Glitterbomb, she'll kill in the worst way possible? How could he have been so stupid? That was when I saw her about to get her knife out, but then noticing something. The two other boys were staring at him in envy, and maybe they would eventually kill him for her. She wasn't going to kill him, yet. As he got closer to her, she began to screech, and this screech was certainly real.

"Don't do that, Colin! You know that was where the idiot wounded me, Kayla!" her face turned from fake love to real fury. "When I find her, I am killing her in my own ruthless way! If anyone ever finds her, bring her to me! I must be the one to kill her!" she screamed.

The boys, desperate for her love began searching endlessly for me, until one finally spotted a tiny eye, peeping out of a leaf. No! I tried to cover it up, but it was too late. They were all approaching the tree, I might as well have come out of my nest. As I unravelled I saw Colin exchange with me a face of panic, only I didn't want to play any games with him anymore.

"Kayla!" Aphrodite called out. "You nosy, priggish fool!" she started climbing up the tree, only Glitterbomb shoved her off.

"Remember what I said," she watched Angelina help her up, "I must be the one to kill her!"

She smiled at me menacingly, up in the tree, nowhere to run, finally in her power. "You won the battle, sweetheart, but you lost the war." she turned to Colin. "Colin, would you be a dearie and go up the tree and grab her for me?"

He looked at me with dreadful eyes as he began to climb. But he was hopeless! When he actually got close to halfway, he fell off landing hard on his back.

"Not even the hope my love can drive you up there, it seems." she groaned. "Maybe it can if you don't get any sleep tonight! You must find a way to bring her to me! Or else, there will be a result in a long, painful death!" she put an arm around the other two boys. "Meanwhile, we can sleep together."

Colin desperately tried to get her attention, but she just ignored him, there was no use. To prove his love to her, he had to climb up and get me, leaving me unscathed. The three women and the men were soon about to drift off, leaving Colin to stay awake. He kept trying to make it over half, but every time he fell down.

Then something strange happened, he tapped each one of them lightly, as if checking to see if they were dozed off, grabbed a long rope and then sprinted up the tree like a monkey. He really could climb, so why did he fake it to them? When he was up to the top, which didn't take long, he grabbed my wrist, to prevent me from jumping off. I wouldn't have anyway, I would have just gotten more bruised, and it would be an even worse death with Glitterbomb adding the extra salt to the wound.

"Go ahead." I whispered harshly. "Let Glitterbomb kill me, then die knowing that all you ever were was a traitor, Colin Mainstone."

"I'll explain everything once we get out of here." he said, while tying the rope to a branch with a very complicated knot.

"If there's anything that's worth explaining at this point." I crossed my arms.

He let the rope fly down to the ground. "Come with me."

"I'd sooner stay up here." I saw my words cut into him deeper than any of Angelina's nails.

"I am not trying to get you killed, Kayla." he croaked. "I am trying to help you escape."


	19. Chapter 18

After that, I stayed silent, not saying a word. The truth was, I was still hungry for more information. Why was he helping me escape? Why was he with her in the first place? And most of all, why should I have any reason to believe him? He climbed down the rope while beckoning me desperately to follow. Then, when I saw his face, I knew why I should believe him. He may have kissed Glitterbomb, but then it seemed almost shallow. But looking at him then, I could read more emotions than one of Miss Yin's History books. Guilt, knowing how deeply upset I am with him. Humiliated, that he had done such a thing while knowing it was all a trap. Hurt, that I had been so harsh with him. I suppose I couldn't have not believed him, and was soon following him down the rope. When we reached the bottom, as I saw the sleeping bodies, I began to wonder, why couldn't we just kill them all, with my spear, just then? I started to take it out, though Colin held my arm down with a surprisingly strong grip.

"Don't." he whispered. "It may seem like a good idea, but then the person who has been stabbed will scream, waking everyone else up. And then, well, you reach a grim ending. Now, follow me." he walked off.

I stumbled after him, trying not to make too much noise. The different jungle trees seemed to go on for decades and centuries, as if there was no real end to them. We constantly had to jump over small thorns or stinging nettles. Normally, on a regular basis, this wouldn't be so bad, it would only result in a scab or a sharp venom for about ten to fifteen minutes. But we didn't want to give Glitterbomb or anyone else any reason to make our death any more painful than they'd already make it. We seemed to go on for miles and miles before we finally came to a complete stop.

"Okay, now ask any questions you want. Insult me as much as you like. Just don't use that spear against me."

"Why did you ally with Glitterbomb when you knew it was all a trap?"

"TO PROTECT YOU!" he cried. "I immediately ran up into a tree after escaping the bloodbath and then saw her stomping with her three guys and her two henchmen."

I smiled slightly. "That's literally how I thought of them as too."

He chuckled a bit. Now, at least, no matter what happened, we had the pleasant air around us.

"Anyways, I heard her talking about you, and how you had stabbed her hard in the shoulder with a spear." he sighed. "She unfortunately would have died too, if it hadn't been for a first aid kit in one of the backpacks. She was after you, and wouldn't stop screaming about how you had cheated in the Games by using a spear from the ground and not the Cornucopia."

"It wasn't cheating! They hid them there for a reason!"

"That's literally what I thought too." he imitated me, but not in an offensive way, and set us both laughing slightly. "I knew she'd kill you soon, so I wanted to keep you safe from her. And I knew the only way to do that was to join her stupid game and die if I had to."

"I'm... I'm worth that much?"

"Course you are. You're worth everything..."

That was when we kissed. It felt amazing, like we weren't in this vile arena anymore. It felt as though we were on some sort of cloud, free from any harm attempting to break hold of us. It felt as though we were the only two on the planet, no, we were the only two on our own little planet. Life was just the moons revolving around us. We were truly free.

Only this wasn't a fairytale, the kiss wasn't the final page, it was the start of a new chapter.

"Colin?" we heard a yell. "COLIN, WHERE'S KAYLA?"

It technically could have been anyone who made the sound, however we knew it just had to be Glitterbomb. I heard a near-silent rustling from far away. I cursed under my breath, because I knew by how fast she got hold of me in the bloodbath, she was a very, very fast runner. She would outrun both of us multiplied by each other!

"We're going to have to split up!" he cried. "Then she can't get to us both."

"NO!" I grabbed hold of his shirt as he ran off. "I'M NOT LEAVING YOU!"

He quickly took hold of my arm and held it close. "It's me she wants." he whispered. "I'm the one who betrayed her."

I didn't have time to react to what he said before my hand had left his and he was plain out of sight. I rushed in the opposite direction. I was so stunned by the whole situation that I couldn't worry about Colin, let alone think about where exactly I was running to!

I ran and ran for my life, until I tripped over a large branch on the ground. It was as if the fall injected my senses into my head as I stood up and checked behind me. She wasn't there. I had just made it. But what about Colin, who she must have gone after? Was he dead? Had I seriously let him die? And all for what? So I could live another day knowing just how big of a fool I am? I knelt down, crying ruthlessly, as breathless and worthless as a speck of dust. Let me die now, I thought. I reached for my knife, I wanted to go and be with Colin, and now there was only one way to do it. I reached it towards me, it would take one blow to kill me, and I wanted to get it over with.

As the blade was nearly meeting my body, I heard a rustle in the bushes. A tiny eye came into vision, exposed ever so slightly outside of a pile of leaves. The pile of leaves was very small, only one person in the games was capable of hiding there, and it was already backing away in fear of my attention.

"Don't kill me." Yarn whispered faintly. "Please."

"Kill you?" I asked. "Why would I kill you?"

"Because then I'm one less person to worry about?"

"Of course not. Yarn, I won't kill you, I promise." I dropped down my spear and emptied out my backpack, and the way to make peace with her spilled out. The ball of yarn!

As I pushed it under the leaves, I saw her one eye light up the darkness surrounding us, but it also looked slightly confused. "Why would you give me this?"

"Because I want you to have it. It's no use to me." I even passed her my spear. "You can even take my one weapon if you want, you may need it to defend yourself more than I do."

But a little hand entered through the pile and fiercely beckoned it away, but the little eye was anything but fierce. "Keep your spear, I have a slingshot. Also, you're better with it than I am."

I took the spear and was beginning to walk away knowing I had helped her when she suddenly whispered.

"If you like, I can make us a blanket with the yarn."

Forget her eyes, mine shined brighter than the Sun itself as I screamed like a little girl, "yes please!"

She sat opposite me, showing me the yarn. "All I'll need is two sticks."

"Yes!" I ran across to the nearest tree and immediately fetched two sticks for her in eagerness.

"Perfect." I saw her little face smile, as she took the sticks and set to work straight away.

I knew just how much she missed doing this. She knitted faster than a Cheetah running to catch it's prey. I didn't want to distract her from doing what she loved the most, but I did want to ask her something that I had been thinking about.

"Why were you watching me?" I asked.

Her eyes barely looked up, let alone her head, but I respected that. "I didn't want you to commit suicide. I want you to win."

"Really?" this came to me as a shock, I thought she just feared me. "Why?"

"You're not mean, like the others. You actually want to win for good reasons, not just to get rich."

"And what is that?"

"You want to go back to your Mom." she smiled and then stopped knitting for a second. "Can we hug?"

"Of course."

It was an odd request, but hey, we were both in this arena together, we could embrace each other every once in a while. As my arms ravelled around her neck, she held me tight and began to whisper into my ear.

"You also want to show Freya that she can't just send you somewhere to die and get away with it." she pulled away and then resumed to knitting.

It wasn't long before she was holding up to me a rainbow-coloured blanket. It was quite thick, and very, very long. It would serve to us as a great blanket!

"I love how you used a different array of colours."

"I like to do that. Because realistically nothing in the world is one colour." she held it up again and sighed. "I started knitting at the age of four, and was soon already ahead of everyone else my age. My mother owned a little shop which made pillows and blankets for District 8. By the age of eight, with my own free will, everyday after school, I helped her run it. I even helped her knit, and soon even sew, different items in it."

"Mama and I used to marvel your shop." I said. "We loved the different colours used and the different patteren and delicacy of each pattern."

She nodded sadly. "I loved working there. I was over the moon when my mother offered for me to take over when I was eighteen. I hoped and daydreamed of everything I would make, everything would do, all the nice people I would meet!" her head began to droop slightly. "Only, I was reaped. My mother was devastated, I was devastated. And now I'll never see her again." a tear somersaulted down her cheek.

"You may still see her again." I wiped her cheek with my shirt.

"I am twelve and the only strength I have is sewing." she pouted.

"Well, a common death in the Hunger Games is to freeze to death, so at least you have that nailed down."

"Correction, we have that nailed down."

We laid on the floor, and as soon as the blanket was wrapped over us, nearly all chinks of ice in the air vanished. We wphad our own body warmth and the blanket, maybe we would have a shot at this after all. I just wanted her to trust me.

That question was answered when she laid her head on my shoulder and drifted away.


	20. Chapter 19

When we woke up, I found Yarn, already awake, and she seemed to be searching for something. When she saw me up, she looked a little disappointed. Had I upset her? Did she decide that she didn't want to trust me after all? I began to panic.

"You weren't supposed to wake up! I was making turkey for you, as a surprise!" she sighed.

"Turkey?" I was bewildered by how this little girl could find, let alone kill a turkey. "You found a turkey?"

"Oh, no." she said. "I had a turkey leg in my backpack, when I got it!"

I felt ashamed for waking up. "Well, maybe we can make it together, and then split it in the end."

"I am still going to please you!" she cried in haste, and waved her hands around as if pleading as I began to stand up. "I am going to go get some firewood, let me at least do that!"

Her desperate little face, I didn't know how anyone could possibly say no to that. But I was still worried for her.

"I'll be fine, Kayla, I promise." she urged on.

"I know, but I at least want to know that you're safe." I looked around the area, found my spear and handed it to her. "Here, take my spear. Then you'll at least have some protection."

"Fair enough." she said, seeming slightly relieved she was able to reason with me a good bargain. "I'll be back soon."

She looped around a tree, and then not even one of her little pigtails was in sight. No matter how hard I resisted them, my eyes began to drift shut. I was soon shut out from the world temporarily...

Gah! I woke up, still under Yarn's blanket, and looked up, expecting to see her. But, she wasn't there, she had left a small stack of firewood on the ground. It was some, but nowhere near enough to start a fire. However long I slept, it should've been enough for her to finish. So, where was she?

That was when I heard the scream, and she was the only one in the arena capable of letting it out.

I immediately rose to my feet, grabbed our supplies, and rushed off in the direction she went. Wherever she was, she had gone a long way from our camp, especially for her little legs. I heard her wail again, and began to run faster, desperate to save her. I didn't care if it was some sort of trap, or if someone was using her against me, I had to know if she was okay! The howl happened one more time, and then all there was was silence. I finally managed to track the scream, and found her, lying on the floor, clutching my spear, with many different wounds all over her body. How had this happened?

"Glitterbomb...", she croaked, "found me. She recognised... your spear. She said... if I didn't tell her where you were... she'd wound me until I die."

"You won't die, I won't let you!" I tried to convince her, and myself, however the truth was seen by the amount of blood coating her skin. She was a goner.

"Don't let her win." she whispered, though I knew she was fighting to speak louder.

"I won't, I promise."

She had just enough energy to nestle down beside me as tears spilled from her cheeks.

"Don't worry." I wiped her tears away, though I couldn't stop mine showering down me. "You are going to a better place, now. You are going to leave this cruel world and someday your mother will go visit. You two will set up your shop again, and then you can still sew pillows for her. And then, one day, maybe you can own the shop."

I swear I saw her smile slightly, however she did not respond. I quickly put my hand on her heart. It had stopped pounding. Glitterbomb was going to kill everyone I loved, as long as it meant weakening me. But how could she have been so cruel to kill this little thing? Yarn didn't want any of this to happen, all she wanted was a chance at life, to go back to her mother, so she could work in the store again. Meanwhile, Glitterbomb was this so bloodthirsty and vengeful, she went out of her way to hurt me more. And all because of what? Because I wounded her shoulder? Because I outshined her in popularity with the audience? Because all she would ever be was this demon? I cried beside her corpse, however I tried not to let it dig into my mind too much, because then Glitterbomb would have her triumph. And I wasn't going to let that happen.

Slowly, I recovered from the loss enough to stand and walk away. And then the list of people who had died these last two days showed up in the sky. I stared up at them, trying to make sense of who was dead.

The boy from District 3 was dead, he must have been the one who Glitterbomb stabbed, Ader.

The boy from District 6 was dead, I didn't know how that had happened.

The girl from District 8 was dead, that girl was Yarn.

They were the only three dead. That meant that Lola's trio of allies were all still alive, and that Lola had not decided that she needed to kill them yet. Glitterbomb probably thought it was best to lay off on killing another one of her lovers yet, or else things may become suspicious. I was confused by the list, though, Colin hadn't died. But then, where was he? What had that witch done to him?

I made that my mission, to go look for him. And find out what shape Lola was in. They were now my only friends in this arena, and so I would have to protect them from danger.


	21. Chapter 20

I was determined not to let Glitterbomb break me, or any of my friends, so I didn't hesitate to vacate the are, fast. I barely managed to snatch the spear out of Yarn's tight grip, even dead, she was still refusing to let anyone else take it. But, as I was about to go and search for Lola, because I knew that we could both find Colin together, I heard footsteps coming towards me. Worried that it was the Love pack, I scurried up the tree. But when I heard the voices, I realised that I wouldn't need to find Lola after all.

"It's still my turn, for goodness sake!" Blossom stomped into my view. "I only got one kill yesterday!"

That must have been the boy from District 6.

"Which was your twenty four hour time." Lola spoke with less emotion, just simply stating her opinion while Blossom chewed her out. "It's not about kills, you know. You had enough time yesterday to go on a rampage. But, that doesn't matter now. What matters is that we stick to our schedule and make things fair."

"YOU PRIGGISH FOOL!" Blossom barked, and then looked over to Tilly for extra support.

I could tell that Tilly wanted to take Lola's side, but she knew it was best for her to stay out of it. One wrong word could cost her life, so she shrugged helplessly.

"I am going to use it today. Use it all you can in the night, though. It's your turn to keep watch."

Suddenly, Blossom calmed down, too suddenly. "Right, okay. I'll try and kill some animals, and potentially some tributes for tomorrow morning. Then, the bow and arrows are all yours for the next two days."

Lola seemed slightly relieved that she was able to reason with her. "Good. I'll see you in the morning."

Tilly laid down on the smooth terrain and shut her eyes almost immediately. Lola was also soon asleep, and seemed glad to finally have these hours to herself. Her only private moment was when she slept, it seemed. No wonder why she was annoyed at me for crying so loudly on the night we were reaped.

Anyone with any sort of sense would know not to trust Blossom, especially not when she was this mad. As she leaned against a tree, I eyed her suspiciously. She had a plan, that was clear, what was more opaque was what it exactly was. I saw her dig into her backpack, until she took out a knife. She did have a weapon! Not just the slingshot which she soon disposed of. She took it out slowly and silently, what was she trying to do. Had she found me in the tree? I took out my spear and prepared to throw it at her, if it became necessary. That was when she began to approach Lola with a sly face with that knife. She slowly began to bring it down on her, reaching a hand out so she could block her mouth when she screamed in pain.

I wasn't going to let that happen. Without thinking, I threw my spear at her, going straight through her heart, making sure that there was absolutely no chance of her surviving. I leaped down the tree, and then stared at her fighting to not cry as she suffered from the pain. I could've shoved her onto her back and then dug the spear in further, but I wasn't going to become a second Glitterbomb. Instead I handed her her knife, and she soon got the message. She quickly dug it into the wound, making one last break for air, before withering away from her soul. I suppose I also could have killed Tilly right there, while I had the chance, but I saw no reason to kill her. Despite her eight in training, with her compassion, she really could never actually kill anyone. And unfortunately, in the Hunger Games, that was a major disadvantage.

I rapidly shook Lola awake, whispering harshly, "Lola, wake up!"

Only she, at first, got the wrong idea, "Blossom, I swear, any more words from you, and I'll skin you alive with my bare fists."

"No, this isn't Blossom, Lola! This is Kayla!"

The sound of my name caused her eyes to suddenly open, "Kayla, why are you here? And where's Blossom?"

"She tried to kill you!" I cried. "So I killed her with my spear!"

This startled her slightly, and she jumped to her feet. She observed the dead Blossom, and, showing no sense of pity, shoved her on her back, handed me my spear and took the knife. "That pig. Why is that knife even here? I thought you said you used her spear!"

"She had a weapon all this time! Her whole plan was to use it to kill you and Tilly!"

"Well, at least now I have a knife," she then opened Blossom's backpack and found her bow and arrows, "and never forget these!"

"Are you going to kill Tilly?" I asked. "It's your choice, but I don't think she is much of a threat."

"I agree, no point killing her now, she'll be dead at least tomorrow." Lola sighed. "Best get out of here now, while we have the chance."

"Good plan."

Only we weren't that lucky. For by the sound of many footsteps, the Lover pack was heading our way.

"Hide in a tree!" I whispered.

I was grateful that she was a fast climber. All of those years living on the streets really paid off for her. We wrapped ourselves in the leaves, I, for one, did not want to repeat the last time I ran into this group.

Glitterbomb strutted into the space. She had used a knife to cut her jumpsuit, so they were shorts. The idiot had risked freezing in the cold just to be more sexy. But she didn't care, as long as she still lured the men towards her. Colin wasn't with them, which I suppose I kind of suspected, as he did betray her, but then where was he?

"I've felt so... light headed recently." Glitterbomb signalled for one of the men to carry her, and so one of them immediately took her in his arms, shoving the other out of the way.

"Oh, poor, poor you." Aphrodite couldn't have said it more sarcastically. "Well, guess what? I've been light headed since I entered this damn arena!"

"Shut up, you fool!" Glitterbomb leapt out of the man's arms, to his disappointment.

"She's right, you know." Angelina stood next to Aphrodite. "You shouldn't have volunteered in the first place, sweetie, you clearly can't manage the conditions."

"I could kill you both right now! You know that, right?"

"You could, or you could get some of your guys to do it, since you are too lazy to do it yourself!" Angelina retorted.

"No wonder you haven't found Kayla yet!

"No wonder you couldn't kill Colin!"

"SHUT UP!" real tears went down Glitterbomb's face. "He tried to get her down to me, but she ran off. She'll die soon, anyway. Colin said that he had gotten close to making her foot go clean off!"

I wasn't the only one gasping slightly. He said that?

"He even said that he had wounded Lola Coin enough for him to wonder why she was still alive! Her was blood fully coated next to the heart, had it gone a couple centimetres to the left, it would've hit the heart and she would've died!"

Then it was Lola's turn to be surprised.

"How could I have killed him then? Go on, tell me, one of you, if you guys think you're so smart!"

As she began to sob, despite the con artist she was, I knew this was real. She did really love Colin, it wasn't fake. She had loved him so much to not be able to kill him. Only problem was, he did anything except love her back, especially when he lied to her to help Lola and I survive.

"But, I will kill Kayla! And when I find her, I will kill her in the most torturous way possible! Just you guys wait!" she stomped off leaving everyone else to follow her.

Angelina was about to do the same, when Aphrodite gripped her by the shoulder. "We're killing her, understand?"

Angelina nodded vigorously. "Of course we are."


	22. Chapter 21

We said nothing until we had both climbed down the tree and made sure no one was following us. Then, we each grabbed our backpacks and began to walk in a direction.

"I don't get it," Lola said, "why would he cover for me?"

"Maybe he just wanted to protect you."

"That bit was obvious, Kayla. I have done nothing to help or harm him, so why does he care about me being safe or not?"

"Maybe because he wanted to impress Glitterbomb more. You were definitely on her long kill list."

"I suppose that's a good point," she responded, "maybe we should return the favour? I may have been dead if it weren't for him, if Glitterbomb was specifically looking for him." she sighed. "I will truly never stop owing people."

"What do you mean?"

"What I'm saying, is that if you wanted me dead, you could have just let Glitterbomb kill me. But instead, you saved my life. And I can never repay you for that."

I couldn't help but grinning. A compliment from Lola was a rare thing, so I thought I should enjoy it while it lasted.

"I'll tell you how you can repay me, if you ally with me until the end of the games. You and I, and perhaps even Colin, each of us has different skills. He can camouflage like crazy, he's be useful in battle. You can slice someone with a knife as if you were simply chopping fruit. I can shoot a spear from very far away, maybe we could survive."

"I like your plan." Was that another compliment? "Only one thing, I can slice someone as if I was trying to tear a page in a rough half."

"Yeah, yeah." that was when I saw her grin, which was also a rare thing.

Neither of us were prepared for what happened next, when ice was spreading from tree to tree. This wasn't normal, this must have been what Florence has devised. And she promised us she would be fair, so it had either already happened, or it was happening right now to the other tributes. We didn't know what ice would do, but as soon as it caught up to us, we became so cold that it began to hurt. This was no ordinary ice.

"Run!" I yelled.

We took off, barely touching the floor in each step. We could tell how close it was to us by how cold it was, meaning we didn't have to check behind us. We had some good speed against it, until I tripped over a giant twig. It looked so... familiar. Where had I seen this before? When did I trip over in the Games? Or did I not trip? What was going on anymore? What was I even doing?

"KAYLA!" Lola held out her hand to me. "TAKE MY HAND!"

I felt so light-headed. I took her hand as she tugged on it roughly. If there was pain, I didn't feel it. In fact, I didn't feel anything.

"NO!" she screamed, tugging again.

That was when her body became a silhouette, very far away. In fact, everything was a silhouette. And everything was drifting away from me. Until I saw a big, red light in the distance. It became closer and closer, until it was about to enter me. Suddenly, a big, black hole appeared, and a hand reached through and pulled me out.

As I hit the smooth dirt, my senses returned. I began to figure out what happened, the ice had gotten me, Lola tried to pull me out, but I couldn't explain the red lantern. In fact, I could barely even move. And I could barely even feel anything as I drifted away from the Earth...

"Kayla? Kayla!" I heard a male voice. "Are you here? Are you okay? Did I get there in time?"

I opened my eyes to find myself next to a blazing hot flame, with Yarn's blanket on top of me. Lola and Colin were knelt beside me.

"Colin!" I smiled. "How did you find us?"

He stared at me, somewhat perplexed. "Do you remember anything that happened yesterday? Of course, we better explain."

They told me the whole story, when I tripped over the branch, the ice surrounded me. Lola tried to get me out, but had no luck, and began to cry loudly. Colin heard the cry, lit a flame and followed it to find us. He used the flame to melt the ice and take me out of the ice, then from then on I was unconscious. They brought me to a space, and kept watch while I slept.

"I had really weird hallucinations when I was in there." I spoke. "I didn't really feel anything. And you two were just... silhouettes." I shivered remembering it.

"It's all okay, it's all okay." Colin soothed me.

I turned to Lola. "Why did you save me? If you had let me die, I would've been out of your way!"

"A life for a life." she said. "And it was Colin who really saved you, I just pulled you out!"

I had a sudden thought, why would Florence do that? She said she wouldn't allow this! And that ice that trapped me was clearly made to torture the victim! I couldn't resist asking Lola, but I would have to be discreet about it, because my words would go all over Panem, and if they were the wrong ones, I could have gotten us all killed.

"Lola, do you think the ice was meant to hit us, or was it all everywhere?" that was surely harmless, and Lola understood what I meant.

"I am unsure, to be honest." she sighed.

That was when an anthem played and it showed the dead tributes.

The boy from District 2 was dead, guess Glitterbomb finally decided to kill one of them.

The girl from District 5 was dead, Blossom Whyte.

Those were all the tributes dead. That meant that Tilly had survived. She wasn't going to last long without allies, though, knowing her sensitive side.

"Eight left, including us three." I muttered.

"The screen hasn't gone away yet." Lola rolled her eyes. "They must be making some stupid announcement."

Lola was right, for a voice soon boomed down on us, and it was female. But it wasn't Florence.

"Hello, fellow tributes!" Freya's voice called out. "I thought I should give you the news! Florence has unfortunately fallen ill, dreadfully ill, and has forced to pull away from being a Gamemaker. So that means, I will have to take over until she recovers."

It was as if everything had stopped. What?

The ice must have been Freya's!

She was warning us.

That she was coming for us.


	23. Chapter 22

Lola tried not to act nervous about it, she didn't want to be the one to lose their cool, but she was whiter than snow gleaming under the hottest sun. Her hands were shaking as if she had just drunk a hundred lattes. Her gold hair stood out more than any colour a stylist could come up with, even Cinna. Her blue eyes began to become waves, shaking against her. But she said nothing, instead she brought us filtered water from the lake, forcing herself none. We sat around the fire together in a melancholy silence, neither of us saying a word.

"You best drink something." I said eventually.

"I am not thirsty." she said icily.

"Tomorrow you will be."

"I lasted three days once without water." she retorted. "Don't see why I can't do that now."

"You "lasted" three days without water, but what we need to achieve is survival."

"I don't care!"

Suddenly, we heard a group of yells coming from the trees. We could tell they were way too far away to find us, but even we could hear the slaps and punches. People were having a fight! That would not only mean another tribute down, but it would mean that all cameras would be trained on them! I'd finally get a shot at speaking to Lola, without having to worry about what I said!

"Why are you fine with commiting suicide?" I asked.

"I'd finally get away, from everything! If Freya did that to you as a starter, who knows what she's gonna do in the future!" she cried.

"Listen," I said, "it's like a game. Freya is the bad guy who wants to destroy us just because of our relatives' doings! But we need to fight her, and win. She wants you to commit suicide, she wants you to die. But are you going to let her triumph? Do you really want innocent teens like us to go through this yearly? Because your death might just be the way to do it!"

The fight was still going on, it was still safe to speak. And if not, they would edit it out of television. I didn't care if they heard me. If anything, I'd rather they did.

"Our choices now, they're our only shot against her." I whispered.

"Then we have to win!" she cried. "We need help! We can't just expect to be able to kill them with just weapons! We can't just expect to blend into the trees naturally!"

"Luckily for us," I turned to Colin, "we have someone who can help us with that."

"Yep," he nodded, "but you guys will need to teach me the ropes of different weapons."

"Then it's settled." I said. "We are going to have to win.

"They'll never let the three of us win." Lola stated. "If anything, they'd sooner no victor than all of us. It's not like what your mother did, Kayla."

"If we need to die, we can at least make it memorable enough to make people think about following Freya."

"Fair enough." she responded. "Then I'm in."

"Me too." Colin said.

"We all are." I nodded. "We need to get some sleep. One of us should keep watch."

"I will." Lola volunteered. "Right now, I could do anything except sleep."

"Fair enough." I said, aware of her sudden need of privacy. "I'll watch tomorrow, then Colin, that way we have a sleep cycle. Wake us up if something's after us."

"Sure will." she replied.

"Also make sure that we don't sleep for too long." Colin pointed out. "Too long, and we'll be too needy of our sleep tomorrow. Best make it three to four hours."

"That's a great point. I'll be aware of that." she seemed a little desperate for her alone time.

"Let's do it then." I said quickly, watching her sigh in relief.

Colin and I laid down together, under some tree leaves. When we woke up, our arms were wrapped around each other's neck, and my head was leaning against his. I swear that we only fell asleep side by side, we didn't know how this happened. We didn't care. We were just so relieved to finally have each other, and we didn't have to worry about one or the other being dead. We turned to Lola, who was coated in bruises and blood, an ugly mix.

"Lola, what happened?" we cried.

"Deadly, ravenous snakes," she gasped for air, "Freya sent them to kill us. It was the least I could do to keep you two alive. They weren't just any snakes, they were mutations. Mutts, they call them. One of Freya's designs, they were able to leap from tree to tree like monkeys, and attack like tigers."

"You should've woken us up!" I was suddenly angry. "We could have helped you!"

"I'm fine." I could tell that for her, moving her legs was like dragging multiple logs.

"Fine is an understatement!" I rushed to her.

Her wounds were serious, as I tapped on one, I could see her gritting her teeth. Colin rushed over to the lake to fetch water to clean off the blood so we could take a closer look at them. Colin also ran off to collect these mysterious looking leaves.

"We used them to heal back at home." he said, when he saw me staring at them in confusion. "They work like magic, she should be healed enough to walk again soon."

"I am still able to walk!" she struggled to resist us as we held her down. "Just let me try!"

"I am sorry, I said it the wrong way." he apologised. "You are able to walk, but for your wounds to heal faster you must stay lying down. We can't take things too fast, but we won't take it too slow either. I am trying to help you, Lola, I promise."

After that, she no longer pushed against us, and just slumped on the ground in defeat. Wasn't it obvious to the spectators that this clearly was unfair? I bet Glitterbomb hadn't gained a scratch since Freya took over! Maybe there was something going on behind the screen, only I could have never known about what it was! Now I could even have been losing Lola to her!

Lola was up and running the next day, though every once in a while she needed to make a small wince of pain as she moved, most of the time she could prevail. We watched her run almost like she used to and were in awe of her. No one was tougher than Lola, and no one could handle those snakes like her. She was truly remarkable.


	24. Chapter 23

We decided that it would be a good idea to start training for battle the next morning. There was a certain time limit in which then Freya could attack, or else the crowds would get suspicious, which was the danger of the games. We let Lola go first, since Colin still needed to collect different materials for the camouflage and I still needed to find long sticks for them to use as makeshift spears. But we both had a knife, and so did Lola, so it seemed only fitting that she would be the first to show us the ropes. We stayed in our space that way we had plenty of room, and let Lola take it from there.

"You always need a good position." Lola started off with our shape. "Always keep your knees bent, that way you are never unprepared for a sudden pounce. Hold your knife up by your side, ready to swing. Never forget where you are, or let anything distract you, because that's exactly what they want you to do."

We spent at least three hours with Lola leading. She could be a little rough at times, but apart from that she was a pretty good teacher. She always made us repeat what she did every time she had finished talking about it, and if we did poor she went through it again.

"Always be prepared for what's behind you," she pointed out, "especially when you're against a team. A very common death in the original Hunger Games was having someone get up behind you and dig a knife into your spine. And you don't want to be known as the tribute with a blind eye, do you?"

We shook our heads compliantly.

"Good." she said. "I was hoping you wouldn't."

We kept swinging and stabbing trees until she had had enough with pretending. She wanted to see us in actual combat.

"Kayla," she said, "I think you're ready."

"Ready?" I stuttered, exhausted from training. "For what?

That was when she took a knife and swung it at my leg, causing a very, very minor injury. Injury was an overstatement, just a little bleed, Lola could do way better. I knew she was going easy. I went for her leg, but was met by a quick block and a knife skimming my shoulder. Once again, a very minor bleed. This time, she went for my neck, only I reacted quick enough to step back and tap her elbow with a knife.

"Five bleeds then you're dead." she proposed.

"Deal." I agreed to it.

We continued with our childish battle, however taking it more seriously than wise adults. I got her up to three bleeds, but I knew she was playing easy on me, but then again, I wasn't sure anyone could top Lola at her best, so I respected her for it. She tapped me to my fourth bleed soon enough, but I was desperate to show her I had listened to every word she said in training. I mimed going for her shoulder, but then switched to my other hand and tapped her opposite knee. With her now focusing on that, I got my knife once again on that same shoulder, causing two bleeds. I had won.

"Not bad," I could tell she struggled to not smile a bit, "just make sure to be a bit more prepared to block. Your attack strategies are pretty good, though."

We took a break, because everyone, even Lola, was fighting to keep their eyelids from drooping. We stood beside the lake, splashing our faces with refreshing water and washed the blood off of our legs. We considered bathing in it, but we didn't want to risk having no clothes for armour if any tribute found us, for it would be foolish to leave them on. We felt so droopy, every bone in our body just seeming to weigh us down more, we decided to call it a day. We were next to certain that Freya wouldn't strike again, but I still kept watch that night, just to be safe.

As they began to drift into a dreamless sleep, I sat on a branch an stared up into the sky. It was a purple colour, with streaks of painted golden by the sun. Too bright to hold stars, but I was still entranced by it's beauty, only the sky could show it's true colours in the arena. While I was looking up I saw a faint bit of silver. As it came slightly lower, it shaped to be a parachute. Someone rich must have been getting a better view of the Hunger Games, that was my best guess. But it was coming closer to us, too close. Was this another one of Freya's traps. I took my spear, and squatted down, ready to attack it. Whatever that parachute contained, a bomb or a hideous creature, I wouldn't let it hurt them. It was about to hit me, and a stroke of fear was stabbed into me, and I began to panic. Was this the day where I would die? The parachute carried a large metal box. I wasn't going to open it, I didn't want it to attack me. Slowly, I lifted up the lid, my spear ready to enter it. As it swung open, I sprung back, only nothing came at me. I creaped closer towards it, and then examined it. It was a whole stash of weapons! A sword, a pair of gloves, a trident and a very, very long rope. I had been a fool! This wasn't a trap! It was a sponsor! Our first sponsor, because surely not all of these were for me! These were weapons for all of us!

I waited patiently for them to wake up, hours went by very fast in the arena, and then showed them the goodies like a little kid in their favourite toy store. Lola held the sword in amazement, it must have been what she had always wanted in the arena, not a tiny, pathetic dagger, but an actual swashbuckler sword. If she so much touched the top of it, blood would spurt out of her finger. Colin was also very impressed by the gloves, they looked like regular black gloves to me, so I asked him what they were for.

"It is a treasure in our district." he replied. "When you put them on, your hands are ten times as powerful, often used for harvesting reluctant crops."

Each weapon was clearly for one of us, so the trident was for me. It was a large upgrade from a spear, with dangerous spikes on the top of each of the three points. When I held it, I felt so much more powerful, I felt as though I could go and kill Glitterbomb just by throwing my trident just then.

"Each of these are clearly an upgrade for our strengths in attacking." Lola made that clear. "However, I'm a little confused what this rope is for." she held it up, examining it closely.

For a split second, I wondered why it would be of any use to us, then I remembered the training with Mama, before I had even known about Freya now being president.

"Oh!" I said aloud, slightly snatching it off Lola. "I completely forgot!"

"Forgot what?" Lola asked.

"All of this time I've only been speaking about my spear, when really, I can also set traps!" I grinned. "And all I need is this rope! How did anyone know about this to be able to sponsor us?"

Then I realised that only one person knew, Mama. All of these weapons... they were all from her.

"Thank you Mama," I muttered under my breath, "thank you."


	25. Chapter 24

It was Colin's turn to keep watch, so Lola and I slept on some leaves. Colin sat in a tree, wearing his gloves, prepared to fight any incoming dangers. We tried hard to get some sleep, sleep was more precious that any amount of currency in the arena, but we struggled to remove the thoughts on our minds and began to exchange them secretly.

"I can't believe it took THAT long for us to finally get a sponsor." Lola whispered. "And it looked really, really expensive too."

"No, it was from my mother." I responded. "She knew about my strength in traps, she was the only one."

I watched Lola's face turn hard and stern. "I know, I know, you have grown up hating her."

"You think I liked Aunt Alma? She was horrible, never spent time with us, she chose being president over her family. She left us, leaving my divorced mother alone with me. I hated that cow of an aunt."

"Oh," I said, "but then, why were you so mad at me?"

"It was because of my own mother, I cared about her. She was just trying to keep us going." I saw her eyes begin to flutter shut.

"I'm really sorry." I told her. "About everything."

"You have nothing to be sorry about. I shouldn't have judged a book by it's cover, I guess." she drifted away from the arena.

"If only Freya could learn from you." I whispered, before temporarily leaving the arena too.

When I woke up, no dangers had come, clearly, for Colin was sitting in a tree, unscathed.

"Brought you guys some food." he handed us a dead squirrel. "Found it in a tree while you two were asleep. Little hard to chase, but I was certain it would fill us up a bit."

Lola's eyes were lit up like a lantern. "Let me skin it! Please!"

Colin looked a little confused that she cared more about skinning the squirrel than eating it, but he wasn't reluctant to let her do it. I'm glad he wasn't, because she skinned it as if she was a birthday girl cutting her cake, and as fast as one too. Soon, we were roasting the squirrel over a fire, because it was day, it wasn't too dangerous. We cut the meat into small eighths and chewed on them ravenously, it had been a while since we had had a proper meal. We had to make sure keep the eating to a limit, though, and ended up saving most of the chunks for the next couple of days.

After the makeshift breakfast, I set off to making a simple, but working trap with my new rope. But I would need their help for sure, for I would need a rock very, very heavy. It needed to not only crush the prey, but also, if I was lucky enough to catch a tribute, make them unable to move it off them. If it didn't kill them, they'd be in a tough position, and then I could easily go finish them off.

"There are plenty of large rocks by the lake," Lola mentioned, "best check there."

There were indeed. Some would even say too large. But I really, really needed one of them, though trying to move it would be difficult. We grouped around one of them and lifted it up about an inch off the ground and started moving it. Slowly, we got it about a metre away, before having to put it down again.

"We just have to get it to the downhill part," Colin huffed, trying to grasp air, "then we can just roll it down."

Metre by metre, slowly but surely, we took it to that bit. We looked up to find that the Sun was now in the centre of the sky, gleaming in its glory. It was already noon.

"We have to get the rock down to at least our camp today!" Lola snapped. "At this rate we will barely get it done half!"

"Or we could set it up at the bottom of the downwards hill." I pointed out. "That way, someone will run down the hill and won't see it coming."

"Fair point." she agreed.

We sent it down the hill without hesitation, and each took a sigh of relief as it hit the bottom. We took off after it, and then came the next part, lifting it up into a spot which was high up, unnoticeable, and not too precarious.

"A tree wouldn't work." I mentioned. "A thing like this could easily snap the branch in half."

"What about inside of a tree?" Colin thought aloud. "A tree hollow would be great." he pointed upwards to a large tree hollow in the tree.

"That's perfect!" I grinned. "It's so dark inside that no one would even see it!"

I then tied the rope to it with a tight knot and then sawed a branch off a tree. I chopped it and tied it to the rope, making a noose for the trap. I was unsure how I was supposed to be able to lift it up into the hollow, though. I ran back up to the lake and found a lightweight but flat rock. I carried it to the tree and placed it directly below it, meaning that now I could reach it. Then, I just needed to place it in there without breaking my arms. It was a huge risk, but we had nothing to lose. I put the rock in my arms, and almost immediately, my arms began to have earthquakes. I would have to do this very, very fast. I stepped on to my footstep and took a great leap in the air. My arms were stretched high, as I grabbed the rock and just managed to slam it into the bakc of the hollow. The noose was able to go into the center of the space, increasing the chances of the prey falling for it. Looking at it from far away, the trap seemed obvious, and it would be very hard NOT to run into. I went back to the lake and covered my hands in the soft, slippery mud, which would be sure to camouflage with the tree and the ground. Continuously having to run to the lake and back, I covered the rope in the mud. Then, it was pretty hard to notice. I left the trap, feeling quite proud of myself.

That night, which had come by very fast, I asked to keep watch. I wanted to be able to check my trap after a couple of hours. Lola had no problem with it, and nor did Colin, both aware of my eagerness of my contraption, and went to sleep on the leaves. The hours that night went by slowly, too slowly. I sat there, restless, on a branch watching the moon slowly make it's way across the sky. When it finally rested three quarters across, I decided to go and see if I had had any prey yet. It was too soon to be sure, but I was so desperate to please the others. I brought my trident and took the short walk towards it. When I got to my trap I froze in shock.

"There you are!" she whispered coldly. "You fool!"

I lifted the rock off them, and before they could even think about getting up I stabbed them with my trident.

That was the quick death of Angelina Fierce.


	26. Chapter 25

As I left the trap and started walking back to the camp, I wasn't sure whether to be happy or sad about Angelina's death. I could have kept her alive for longer, I guess, so that she could kill Glitterbomb with Aphrodite. But she would have become a severe threat if I kept her alive, for she would be hungry for revenge. So I came to the decision that I did the right thing, and I also knew that Lola would be very pleased. When I got back though, the two were awake and furious. Colin kept his cool and managed to not take it out on me, but Lola went pink and started kicking the nearest rock.

"Where were you?" she screamed. "We thought you were dead!"

"I was checking my trap."

"Well, you could have told us!" she sneered. "Woke us up! Or even wrote something on the ground! Either way, you could have done a lot more!"

She gestured to Colin to speak. He sighed. "I'm sorry, Kayla, but she's right. We were really worried about you, and thought Glitterbomb had found you."

"Surely you think I wouldn't let Glitterbomb kill me without a fight!" I said, but there was no use in fighting for myself. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. I know that now. I was just so eager!"

"How's that an excuse?" Lola snapped.

"Because now there's no Angelina to worry about."

That was when she nearly instantly forgave me.

"Nice!" her frown melted away. "Now Glitterbomb only has two bodyguards! The boy from District 1 and Aphrodite!"

"And we both know the boy won't last long!"

The trees began to rustle. The leaves began to dance on a bush, silencing our cheer. Something was coming. I gripped hold of my trident, Lola held her sword high, Colin wore his gloves. We weren't going to go down without a fight. An eye peeked through the bush, and this one was not Yarn's. I was prepared to throw my trident as this person, nothing would stop me this time. As the face peeked through, I was so shocked I dropped my trident, and I could feel Lola lower her weapon. It was Tilly Sears.

"Thank goodness I found you guys!" she stepped out of the bush. "Sorry for a false alarm."

"It's fine." despite saying this, I was shaking from it. "What brings you here, then?"

"I want to give you my stuff." she shoved a backpack in front of us. "Plenty of raw food in there for you to cook and eat. We all know that there is no chance of me surviving."

We didn't reply. We knew that it was true, we knew it from the moment she entered the arena, but we failed to admit it.

"And so I want you guys to win. And if you guys don't kill me, Glitterbomb will. And I want my death to be over with fast. So, I'll make a deal with you, if you kill me, making it as painless as possble, you can have all of this stuff."

We all stopped breathing and were speechless in response to her odd request. Kill her? She had never been a threat, it wasn't her fault she was reaped, she just wanted to save her sister, just like Mama. She was our age, she was in the same situation as we were. It would be heartless to kill her, but it would also be heartless to refuse. If she left us, she'd be left to kill herself, which would be a bit harder and less quick without any weapons. Starving herself would be long and excruciating for her, so then she'd have no choice but to turn herself in to Glitterbomb, and she would score no pity for her. She'd treat her cries of pain the typical bird sing song. So, which one would be less cruel?

She saw our faces and began to cry. "Please!" she sobbed. "I just want to die! I don't want to stay here any longer! I want to go and be with my parents! I want to support my sister in her life! I want to leave this arena! I want to go home!"

We turned to each other. We all knew someone would have to kill her, only none of us wanted to be the one to do it. Lola stepped up, fighting back tears and kneeling down beside her.

"You could join us, you know, it doesn't have to end like this. You could survive."

"I'd be useless, I knew that when you left me alone with a dead Blossom."

Her face displayed hurt, trauma, but mainly guilt of leaving her. No wonder why she stepped up, she was the one who owed her, and knew this was the only way to do it. She looked at her desperate little face and tears rolled down her cheeks. She let go of her sword, listening to it vibrate on the hard ground.

"JUST LET ME LEAVE THIS CRUEL WORLD WHERE CHILDREN ARE FORCED TO FIGHT EACH OTHER!" Tilly screamed in more pain Glitterbomb could have given her. "LET ME GO! PLEASE!"

She grabbed the blanket which Yarn made and draped it over her. "Just so you'll be warm." she whispered.

"Very warm." Tilly spoke in a softer voice, and handed Lola back her sword. "You know you have to do it. Might as well get it over with."

"I suppose you're right." Lola attempted to choke back her tears, and lifted her sword. "You are going home, Tilly."

"Home." she whispered, holding her hand to assure her. "I am going to go home."

Lola looked down at the sword, and with great pain, shoved it into the heart of Tilly Sears. Tilly smiled slightly for the last time, before drifting away. Lola had just seemed to come to her senses that she killed this young girl and it destroyed her.

"No." she cried, taking Tilly's hand and watching it drop to the surface. "NO! TILLY!"

Colin and I knelt down beside her and we all cried together. My hand brushed Tilly's soft hair, very soft, behind her ear. Her eyes were staring at the sunrise in the sky, a pleasant view, perfect for her last view. We all had to remind each other that this is what she wanted, that she was going to live on.

That she was playing with her parents.

I could almost hear them whisper,

"Welcome home, Tilly."


	27. Chapter 26

We felt broken at the loss of this girl. We knew deep down that we had done the right thing, but back then, it seemed impossible to think that. Unfortunately for us, we didn't have too much time to be upset. From a distance, a light flared, seeming slightly harmless. But soon, it began to swallow everything up as it moved, behaving similar to a fire, only the trees that it passed became part of it, making it stronger. We knew this could only mean one thing, Freya had struck again.

"Run!" I screamed, throwing my backpack over my left shoulder.

We took off in the opposite direction, making sharp turns around each tree and barely touching the floor with our light steps. We didn't dare turn around, so we didn't know how fast it was going, and we didn't know how long it would take for it to swallow us up. This wasn't the ice, this time Colin probably wouldn't be have been able to melt it with a torch. We had gotten pretty farm and we began to feel pretty sure that we were now safe from harm, when we nearly ran straight into another light. We turned around to find the other light. They were both the same, blinding, gold and hungry for our blood. We took off away from both of them, aware that they were both chasing us. We weren't met by any other light, but the lights had now merged and were now larger than ten of my school busses. We jumped over a podium... what? A podium? We looked around in confusion before realising we were in the Cornucopia! But why would these lights lead us to the Cornucopia? At first, it seemed rather strange to judge it right there, just then. This could have purely been a coincidence. Only, the light hadn't followed us into the space, enough evidence to prove the theory. The light had half-surrounded the Cornucopia, desperate to gulp down the other half, only resisting reluctantly. Why?

Glitterbomb appeared from the other side, huffing and puffing, soon followed by her minions, the boy from District 1, and of course Aphrodite. Aphrodite was looking as pretty and plastic as ever, but the boy clearly suffered from some major cuts on his leg and arm. My only theory was that Glitterbomb threatened to kill him for whatever reason she wanted to, and decided to show him that she could make cuts last long and hard. I couldn't feel bad for him, he was the one who made the mistake to ally with her. He had been fortuitous to even have lasted this long, only now she had a new sight to look at. Colin Mainstone. As soon as she caught sight of me, she started running over with bow and arrows. That wasn't how you used it, you were supposed to shoot it from far away, the running towards me was entirely unnecessary. I grinned, this had made something clear. She did not know how to use it. She got close enough for me to skim her with my trident before she finally began to set up her weapon. No wonder she got the six in training! She defended my trident stabs with her bow, all while attempting to shoot me once, only each one was at least three inches away from any part of my body.

"Stupid sponsor!" she cursed, throwing the bow over her head for extra audience effect, before taking out her knife. "This will be my favourite kill in this arena, and believe me, I've had some pretty good ones."

Lola shoved me out of the way, flashing her sword in front of Glitterbomb's face. "Only, what's good to you?"

They began to begin their sword-fight. Lola's shove had taken me by surprise, I would have thought she would have let me fight her. Only I did not object against it, Lola was the professional, and maybe also because I didn't have time...

Aphrodite took the bows and arrows that Glitterbomb had deserted and shot my elbow, causing blood to ooze out, as if the arrow had injected poison into it. I ripped the arrow out, and began to grit my teeth because I knew there would be no time to tend to it. I held onto it, I didn't want to die, I didn't want to die, I didn't want to die. I had to show Freya that she couldn't just shove me somewhere to die and get away with it. That was when a sudden adrenaline was injected into my wound and I sprinted over to Aphrodite holding my spear up high, dodging every shot she attempted. When I finally reached her, I stuck my trident through her heart. Her sparkling eyes turned dull, her wicked smile faded, her long legs were soon straight on the ground.

"You idiot." she hissed, but even she knew there was no use. She would be dead in a couple of seconds. "Kill Glitterbomb."

Those were her last words before the plastic was peeled off her face. I did not regret her death, she was a fake, snobby brat who thought she could get whatever she wanted by being as pretty as the Greek love goddess herself, but I was taken aback that it was me now who she wanted to win. Her plan was obviously to kill Glitterbomb at the end of the battle, but was she really that controlling of Aphrodite? I didn't understand, I couldn't understand, part of me didn't even want to understand, so I just tried to find who to now help fight. Colin was fighting the ally of Glitterbomb, and with his gloves, he was doing a great job at defending him, and even I was impressed by his technique in physically fighting him. Lola, however was struggling against Glitterbomb, just managing to defend her attacks, let alone attack her. She needed my help.

I took hold of my trident and sprinted towards Glitterbomb. I don't remember much after that. She swung her knife, it hit me in the chest.

Then all I saw was white.


	28. Chapter 27

Lola's PoV

"NO!" I screamed, slashing my sword, skinning Glitterbomb's throat. "YOU DON'T KILL KAYLA AND GET AWAY WITH IT!"

I was just beginning to think, surely things can't get any worse? We had been lured into the Cornucopia by a stupid death trap, we'd been forced to fight, and I ended up in a sword fight against the wicked Glitterbomb! Had I not been struggling against her, maybe Kayla wouldn't have stepped in! I had basically killed her! I refused to let the sorrow of losing my best and only friend, shoved Glitterbomb over with my sword and pulled the knife out of Kayla. It hadn't quite gone through her, but enough to receive a fatal wound. Her eyes were closed shut, not opening no matter how many times I slapped them hard. I felt as though I was pure lava, a volcano, erupting hard. Even that was an understatement, I felt pure _rage._

I instantly swung my sword into Glitterbomb's hand, chopping her index finger clean off. She sprung up from the ground, her bruises on her face suddenly visible, her hair in dotted knots. But if she won, the stylists, they could make her pretty again, they could comb her hair clean with their eyes closed. But no matter what they did, no matter how much money they spent, they could never replace her finger.

"YOU RAT!" she screamed, swinging at me again, only I defended it. "WHAT DO YOU HAVE AGAINST ME?"

"What do I have against you?" I rolled my eyes while fighting, the way to make things clear to her. "You were the one who seduced men for your own good! You were the one who killed Kayla! You were the one who didn't care if your sister missed you!"

"DO YOU THINK I CARE ABOUT HER?" she became defensive of her reputation, this was being shown all over Panem, and each audience member was holding on to every word we exchanged. "GOLDASS DOESN'T CARE ABOUT MY PERSONAL SPACE, I SWEAR!"

I could almost hear the crowd gasping as they watched this. This was my chance to expose her!

"So, why did you volunteer when you knew she'd be all alone?"

"AHEM, SHE HAS PARENTS! UNLIKE YOU, THEY'RE ALIVE!"

"Don't they work? If not, then how are you so wealthy?"

"THEY WORK, BUT CAN SHE REALLY NOT JUST EAT SOMETHING FROM THE FRIDGE! YOU THINK SHE CAN'T DO ANYTHING!" Her face was blowing up like a balloon, until she burst. "WHEN I GET THAT VICTOR'S MONEY, I'LL MOVE OUT OF MY STUPID FAMILY HOUSE!"

I shoved her over, as her head hit the floor, her senses returned. She had revealed her darkest secret on camera. I grinned, with a finger gone and everyone against her, she was running out of reasons to live. Only problem was, she still was left with the biggest reason of all, to get her revenge on me. She got up and sighed gracefully.

"It doesn't matter, I just have to batt my eyelashes and then get whatever I want." she smirked, reached into her backpack and took out a pot. "I have many sponsors, you know. Wonder why, hm?"

Slowly, she opened the lid to reveal a strange, gold dust. Not just any dust, tracker jacker venom. It was what they used against Katniss to brainwash Peeta, the fool fell for it, right into the stupid Capitol trap. Only, I was different, I wasn't going to fall for it, no matter how much she poured on me.

"Unfortunately, you may find me immune to it." I hissed. "There's no one left I love. Might as well just keep trying to kill me."

"Oh, but I have no plans to use it on you."

Suddenly, she leapt up on me, holding me down with a hard grip. I dug my teeth into her arm, this took her by surprise, but she still refused to let go. The district one boy had Colin in a headlock, choking him slightly, and was bringing him towards Glitterbomb.

"You asked for him unscathed." He threw him, as if he was an object, right next to Glitterbomb. He had a large scratch on his face, and a mild cut on his arm, but apart from that he seemed to be in one piece. "This was the best that I could do."

"You could have handled him more gently." she rasped. "Look at him, he can't even get up."

"I did my best, my love." he whispered, twisting an arm around her.

"Well maybe your best isn't enough." she turned on him.

Even while still having one hand occupied to hold me down, she still made sure his death was anything but quick. She slipped her knife into him about two inches below the heart and watched his blood spill. She turned him so he was lying down on his stomach, letting his flesh burn on the hard surface. For effect, she pressed her foot down on the back of his face, making sure he could not find a comfy spot and also to keep him from having any more last words. It was a long, harrowing death, but eventually he stopped breathing or blinking.

She took out a rope from her bag and tied me to the ground, restricting me from harming her. She had forgotten one thing though, my sword, the handle about an inch away from my hand. If only I could have just reached it, I could have easily broken free from the rope.

"It's fine, Colin." she lay him down on her lap. "You're safe now."

"No." he struggled to speak. The boy really hadn't handled him too gently. "You'll just kill me, like you killed Kayla."

She looked rather hurt as she shoved him in front of Kayla. "But she's dead now. Don't you remember anything, your best memories with her?"

He must have had many, they both loved each other. It would have taken off way before the Games if only they had the courage to speak up for themselves

"I saved her life, twice, I guess. She took me to the nurse when Angelina had injured me. We spent training together, teaching each other our strengths and learning new things." he sighed, shutting himself away from the world. "Make it quick."

She dipped her hands into the dust. "When did you save her twice?"

"She got caught in ice, nearly died. I used a torch to melt it, Lola tried hard to get her out." he sighed, he might as well have confessed then. "I let her escape from the tree." he peered into Glitterbomb's hand and his face became coated in horror. "What are you-"

He had no time to speak before the venom was shot into his eyes, he screamed in agonising pain. Her face pained with guilt, of the pain he had to go through, not of what she just did.

"You are going to be okay." she soothed him. "They can't hurt you now, not when you're with me."

Why would we hurt him? I was confused. But then I realised, the way he gritted his teeth, and pounding on the ground, this wasn't just any pain he was experiencing. His mind was racing through different hallucinations of the exact memories he had just discussed. The venom was twisting each memory, turning each one into something so dark it seemed lofe threatening. The torture seemed to never end, he had to be treated. Glitterbomb stared at me, still tied up in that stupid rope. She was desperate to finish me off, but she knew if she didn't tend to Colin, he would soon die. She lifted him into her arms and carried him out of the Cornucopia.

I finally managed to stretch my hand out far enough for me to get hold of my sword, and I did not have a moment of hesitation to cut my ropes off. I came to my senses about what happened, Glitterbomb had finally gotten him on her side, against us. She had used the tracker jacker venom to make him see Kayla in the opposite way he had done before. Not the kind, humble girl who had taken him to the nurse, but a vile creature who needed to die. Forget anything Glitterbomb had said about being the one to kill Kayla, he would kill Glitterbomb to make sure he did.

I began to feel a little bit of anxiety. Sure, I could take Glitterbomb, I could use her dramatic self for my own advantage. But the both of them? Was that going beyond the line that barely existed in the first place. I lay down beside Kayla, why did she have to die? She was the one who I needed the most at that moment. I put my head on her chest, allowing myself to take in everything that had happened in only that hour...

I heard something. Some sort of beat. I lifted up my head and it stopped. What was it? I placed my head back into the same postion as before and then heard it again. It was coming from her chest. The beat... it was very slow, but it was there. Did this mean she was... alive? Just unconscious, not dead?

I had to know for sure. I rushed her back to the lake with no struggle, she had always been pretty light-weight, and began to pour water into her mouth. When it stayed there, I began to lose hope. That beat must have not been hers. It must have been something else, maybe even my beat. Only eventually, there was a swallow, and a small cough. I immediately knelt by her side.

"Kayla," I whispered, "is that you?"


	29. Chapter 28

Kayla's PoV

Slowly, I opened my eyes, and Lola began to blur into my view. She was breathing hard, and she had multiple cuts all over herself. I felt slightly confused. I hadn't been brainwashed from any impact, thankfully enough, but I had to think hard in order to retrace everything that had happened, and why I was now here. First we saw lights, we retreated from them to the Cornucopia, and then got into battle with Glitterbomb. I stabbed Aphrodite, then I went to go and take on Glitterbomb. That was all I remembered. Now, somehow, I was here, with Lola. I couldn't do so much as lift up my head to find out where we were, and even that was painful by itself. We weren't in our camp, we were obviously still in the arena, but we were somewhere else entirely. I had to be able to move, though my entire upper part of my body seemed almost paralysed. The only things I felt able to control were my hands and my head. I hadn't lost any of my nerves though, I still felt all of the pain it threw at me. Lola saw me attempting to get up and halted me.

"What is it?" she sighed. "What can I do?"

As she got closer, so her face was almost squeezed into mine, that was when her wounds became far more graphic to the eye. Her conspicuous raw flesh seemed to bulge as round as an apple. She wasn't her normal, pale self, she was red in rope burns. She needed help, if only I could have simple moved a muscle. She wasn't going to get away with not letting me ask about them, though.

"You're the one who needs help, Lola." I responded.

"Me?" she snarled. "It's a miracle that you're still alive! And I don't know how, a knife was stuck almost all the way through your chest!"

"What happened?"

"Good news is, Glitterbomb thinks your dead." she ignored my question. "For once, I don't blame her, I did too."

"What happened?" I asked again, already beginning to lose patience.

"I wouldn't call us even, but I did chop her finger off when she injured you."

That was when I lost it. "DON'T THINK THAT BECAUSE I CAN'T STAND THAT YOU CAN SUDDENLY KEEP SECRETS FROM ME! I WILL ASK ONE MORE TIME, WHAT HAPPENED?"

This made her mad. Mad? She was boiling all over.

"You know what? SOMETIMES IT'S BEST IF YOU DON'T KNOW!"

She began to start roasting some of Tilly's pork over a fire. She wouldn't even look at me, and with my new disabilities, I couldn't even if I wanted to. I had to know what happened, there had to be some way to persuade her that I deserved to know! It wasn't normal for her to do this, normally she just blurted it out as if the other person had no emotions. When the pork had been cooked, she began chopping it up with a knife. When she had put them into small bites, she realised that in the situation I was in, I would be unable to feed myself. She put down the knife right beside me, and then I did the unthinkable. I grabbed the knife with my one hand and pointed it towards the large, throbbing wound on my chest. Lola gasped and attempted to pull it out, but not even the most painful torture device of Glitterbomb could have made me let go.

"Tell me everything, or the knife goes in." I hissed threateningly.

"You wouldn't." she said uncertainly.

She knew that I could, and that I most certainly would if it came to it. I could tell that she was thinking about when I attempted to commit suicide on the first day. She still didn't know that I would've done in the arena if it wasn't for Yarn. I could really kill myself, and unfortunately for Lola, I had no fear of doing so.

"I'll tell you... everything." she whispered. "Just put down the knife."

"First tell me everything, then we'll see."

"No." she refused. "Put it down first."

But I wasn't kidding, I wouldn't release it from my tight grasp.

"Fine." she crossed her arms. "But do you promise you definitely won't ever attempt it?"

My first instinct was to say no. But then I realised, if I died then Lola would die too. Lola was very strong, but she wouldn't be able to fight alone. Well, she wouldn't exactly, she had Colin. Colin... where was he? She would surely let me know in her explanation. I chose not to help him, I was almost certain he was now dead, and it was all because of me.

"Fine." I dropped the knife, allowing her grasp hold of air in relief.

"It's a long story." she said, picking up the knife, keeping it far from my reach.

"We have plenty of time." she had no excuses to not leave out vital details.

She began to tell me everything. When Glitterbomb stabbed me, I went unconscious, however they both thought I was dead. Glitterbomb tied Lola up and ran off, taking Colin with her. She didn't go into any detail about each event as she spoke, and it only really took a minute for her to say. Colin... he was with Glitterbomb. I went into a small frenzy of panic. But she could never convince him to join her side, surely not. He may not fight back, but he'll think far more than twice about even considering going against us. Glitterbomb wouldn't kill him, not when she loved him so much. So why was I still so frightened of what she could do to him?

Then I knew why. Glitterbomb would never simply tie Lola up and then run off, she'd be sure to kill her. Lola had left out a large piece of what happened, and I was going to make sure I found it out. As soon as I tried to speak, my eyes began to close. I didn't want to sleep, I had to figure out what happened, but I just couldn't control myself...

Lola slapped me hard across the face, causing a small sting of pain. I stared at her, confused and hurt. Even she stared at her own hand and began to take in what she had done. Slowly, she kicked her knife away from her, as if she shouldn't be trusted with it.

"Sorry." she apologised. "But I'm going to feed you this pork, while it's still hot. Now's not the time to sleep."

Pork was close to the last things I wanted at that moment, but I managed to swallow each bite Lola forced into me as if each one were a hard piece of rubber. When I had finished each one I felt like a balloon near bursting, bloated as ever, though in general, it was quite a small portion.

"I keep forgetting the condition you're in." she said afterwards. "You don't normally act like this."

"Well, I'm not normally fed pork."

She grinned and laid down beside me. "First stop, recovery. Next stop, Glitterbomb."

"Agreed."

We shut our eyes and got some rest. I had slept for about three hours before I was woken up by her speaking. Her eyes were shut, but she was turning over and over in her sleep. She screamed in fear, I didn't even know she was capable of doing that.

"Don't fall for it!" she cried. "He will kill you!"

I didn't know what she was dreaming of, but I turned my head. If only I could have moved a part of my body more, I could have woken her up. I was about to give up and drift away again when I heard her say my name.

"Kayla, you don't know!"

What did I not know? Was this to do with what she had clearly kept from me?

"I couldn't tell you!" she wept. "It would just make everything worse!"

She kept screaming, I listened to every word until I naturally drifted off again.

When I woke up, I found her fiddling with leaves. She had wrapped leaves around some of her wounds, and had to keep adjusting them back into their spot. She eventually gave up and started ripping them up in frustration, and only paused when she saw caught sight of me awake.

"Trying to stop losing so much blood." she said, seeing me sit up in confusion.

Sit up? I had recovered a lot in the night, and now my upper body was way less paralysed, and I cound now sit up. Standing would be a struggle, but if I did this well the next night, I'd be able to walk soon in no time. I tried not to get too caught up with this though, I had to find out what she had been keeping from me.

"You had a nightmare last night. You were screaming all sorts of things."

She gulped. "And?"

"What was it about, exactly?"

"We had a battle with Glitterbomb... and I saw Colin there. I got worried, that was all."

"You said my name. Something about you not telling me something? Something about me not knowing that someone was killing me?"

Lola looked down. "What about it?"

"Lola." I whispered. "I want the truth."

"Okay, fine! I didn't tell you everything that happened after you were stabbed!" she surrendered.

"So, what else happened?"

"You ever heard of tracker jacker dust?"

My heart skipped a beat. I knew it all too well. My dad... he was tortured and brainwashed by the Capitol in the Great Rebellion. They showed clips of Mama with him in the Hunger Games, precious memories he never wanted to forget, and then sprinkled some in his eyes, and each memory was twisted into something different, so dark that they seemed life threatening. They did it to make Mama weak, back in the days she was a huge threat to the Capitol, and it was important to them that they soon dispose of her.

"Glitterbomb managed to obtain a pot from a sponsor. She threw Colin in front of you, he too thought you were dead. She reminded him of all times he saved your life, and of his best memories with you." she paused.

I was able to guess what had happened. "She used it on Colin? He now sees me as a viscous tyrant?"

Lola nodded with pain. "I'm afraid so."

I began to panic and my heart started beating faster than it ever had before. He would come after us, he would come after me, and would be prepared to kill anyone in his way to get to me. Glitterbomb had gotten him on her side, and no matter how willing he was to ally with her, he did it all with one big goal. Kill Kayla. Glitterbomb must have gotten a lot of sponsors, she must have needed buckets of money to afford the dust. Even a grain of it must have been expensive. And if so, where did they get it from? It was similar to an illegal drug, and was as hard to find as one. Only the rulers would be able to have large stocks of it.

Only the rulers...

Freya...

"Freya gave her the venom." I hissed. "She wants us dead for sure."


	30. Chapter 29

Slowly but surely, I recovered from my wound. The first time I stood up since then, Lola had to hold me by my shoulders and help me walk. It went from her supporting me around my neck to my waist, to my shoulders, and then to my fingertips. Then I started using a long stick which Lola had fashioned for me into a cane for a while, until I could run without it. Sure, I wasn't quite my usual strength, and my wound would be certain to leave a mammoth, hideous scar. I was still strong enough to be in combat and I didn't care about beauty, so what did it matter?

We went to sleep again one night, and the next day I our arms were wrapped around each other and our legs were curdled around the other's. We got up straight away, embarrassed slightly and things became very awkward between us. We found ourselves unable to speak to each other without bringing it up, so we decided it was best just to not speak at all. We spent the day gathering more food and water, although Tilly had done an acceptable job of bringing them to us, we always wanted to be prepared in case Freya really decided to play a game of "The Floor is Lava". She couldn't destroy the arena no matter how much she wanted to, for it would kill all of us. And also, one word, uprising. She had few supporters on her side, especially how unsubtle she was about targetting us. Like dominos falling, if one district rebelled, all of them would, and she couldn't afford that, not in the situation she was now in.

We decided that we couldn't pretend that the other person didn't exist forever, so as we sat next to a fire, chewing on pork, O decided to bring up our game plan. As well as we were surviving in this situation together, it was obvious that we couldn't go on like this forever. Freya would get bored of waiting to hear our screams of pain, and eventually become oblivious to the audience and just kill us right on the spot. Then either Colin or Glitterbomb would survive, and we knew we couldn't let that happen, no matter how he saved my life twice or how well he treated us.

"We should take notes of their strengths and weaknesses." I told her.

"Nice. Sounds good." we each grabbed sharp sticks and started to write notes in the dirt. "Glitterbomb. Strengths?"

"She does well with that knife, obviously, not as good as you, but still is good with it."

"Fair enough. Knife techniques." she spoke as she wrote it down below her name. "What else?"

"She can run really fast, that's something we should note." I pointed out. "We definitely have no option to flee the battle."

"She did take off pretty fast, even while holding Colin in her arms." she agreed, and wrote that down as well. "Anything else?"

"I don't think so..."

That was when our second sponsor gift came fluttering down to us. We hadn't gotten too many sponsors so far, so we prayed that these would be good. One problem was, as the silver parachute hit the floor, we didn't know whose sponsor it was for. I let Lola open it, she was dying to cut it open with a knife, but I kept assuring her that she could just open it. As she reluctantly popped the lid open, there were goggles. Goggles? We stared at each other, thinking the same thing, who would send this to us and what were they for? We spotted a little note at the bottom of the package, and so Lola let me open it, it was my turn. The handwriting was very neat, and it was a long letter. I laid it down in front of us and we started reading it.

 _To Lola and Kayla,_

 _We weren't allowed to slip in notes with our sponsor, but we didn't know if we had anything else to lose. We had to deliver an important message to you, you don't know the chaos that has been caused since you've been in the arena._

 _When Freya sent out the corrupted ice to hunt you two down, and when Kayla almost died, District 11, our district, started attacking the Freya's guards. They held the mayor of the district at gunpoint until he finally requested a first class 300 mile per hour train to take us to District 10. He even escorted us on and secretly wished us good luck, it's not just the peasants who despise Freya. We waited until the driver had gotten us there, of course, it's mostly automated, but someone has to tell it where to go, and then hijacked it, making sure it would stay there, and locked the train doors behind us. When we got into District 10, we managed to sneak in at least 200 rebels to fight with us. We visited each district, repeating the same thing to them. It got harder and harder as they became richer and richer to convince them to join us, but eventually we did it. We had at least 2000 rebels to fight with us._

 _You may be wondering why all of these people have decided to help you. The rich and poor districts have completely different reasons. The rich districts were captivated by your amazing outfits in both interviews and thought that the least they could do was help you out. The poor districts are able to see that Freya is not being fair to you two in the arena, and that the whole Hunger Games returning isn't fair for any of these districts. We may die in the process, but we are willing to if it means thousands of innocent children are saved by our actions. They depend on us._

 _We had to have everyone donate most of their savings, even the very reluctant ones, in order to be able to gather all the right make these goggles. They are truly one of a kind. Wear them, and everything will become clear in the dark. Not only that, you'll be immune to any of Glitterbomb's tracker-jacker dust, because if she gets one more person on her side, all hope will be lost. Your goggles will make a small beep noise if something is coming up behind you, making neither of them able to sneak up on you. They have a hard grip on them, meaning only you two can take off your own goggles. Keep these on during battle, you will need them._

 _It is impossible to get the dust out of someone's eyes, so be reminded of that when you have to kill Colin. I am very grateful to you two allying with him and making him feel supported, something that he always needed before the Games. As a mother, I know I shouldn't be doing this to my own son. As a soldier, I realise that we are doing the right thing. If he comes home, he will never be the same, really, and it will break my heart. His death will be for the best._

 _For these goggles, all I want is one thing in return. Make his death fast, and do it in the least painful way possible. As for Glitterbomb, she hypnotised my son. Do with her as you please._

 _Sincerely,_

 _Sakura Mainstone._

After we had finished, we stared at it with wide eyes, stunned at what had happened. Sure, what she had done was very, very wrong, and I was hoping there would be some sort of rebellion against it. But was it really enough to cause a rebellion that fast? Fast enough to take Freya by surprise, surely! I knew that the Great Rebellion was a pretty expected battle, even to the Capitol. Hopefully, the rebellion would take the wicked ruler by surprise enough for her to have set no traps and be completely unprepared for what was going to happen.

"Should we try them on?" I asked.

"I see no reason to not."

We slid them on and they immediately fastened tightly, Sakura was sure right about them having a strong grip. Everything became so clear, we were able to see the tiniest squirrel from the farthest tree. We tested out the beat, as Lola took a step behind me towards me the beep immediately sounded. Another beep sounded when she swung a sword over my head, and even sent a message to my brain to duck. She attempted to get it off of my head, yanking it so hard she had burns afterwards, but it refused to come off.

"These are wicked." she said. "We should keep them on at all times, that way if there's ever an unexpected attack, then we're prepared."

"Sounds good to me." I grinned.

As we decided that we might as well attempt to get some sleep, the young scholar girl who could never imagine how it was like in the arena before the actual games began to enter my brain. She whispered thoughts into my mind, telling her I couldn't kill Colin, that it wasn't his fault, that he tried to protect me. I tried to tell her to go away but the angelic little thing stayed there, refusing to leave unless I admitted that I wouldn't kill Colin. I then picked her up and then kept throwing her out the door, but somehow, as soon as I began to feel relieved that she was finally gone, she always managed to find a way back in.

"What is it, Kayla?" Lola turned to face me.

"Nothing." I quickly whispered.

"Yeah, right. You've been squirming all over the place and groaning." she pointed out, and then I blushed furiously in embarrassment. "What is it?"

"Okay, fine! I know we have to kill Colin, I know that for certain! But deep down, I don't want to! And it's all stupid Glitterbomb's fault!"

"Let it out, you'll feel better afterwards."

"SHE HAS RUINED EVERYTHING! ALL BECAUSE I PULLED OUT THAT STUPID SPEAR! I MAY HAVE GIVEN HER A WOUND IN THE SHOULDER, BUT SHE HAS STABBED ME, TAKEN AWAY COLIN AND TIED YOU UP! AND SOMEHOW, THAT ISN'T ENOUGH FOR HER!"

"I agree, she is a disguised monster." she whispered. "There's nothing to do about it, though. We're stuck in this situation whether we like it or not. So we either let Colin live, or one of us survives, saving the rebels, killing Freya, and you seeing your family again!"

I quickly realised what she had just implied. "You're the one who has to go home, Lola."

"You're the one who has family, Kayla!" she was suddenly getting angry.

"You're the one who is the symbol to all the rebels! What did I ever do?"

"You saved my life, if it weren't for you there would be no symbol at all!"

"You saved mine and Colin's life with the snakes!" I was beginning to boil too.

"You two would have been fine!"

"THEN WHY DID YOU SAVE US!"

"BECAUSE I JUST WANTED TO PROVE TO YOU GUYS THAT I COULD ACTUALLY HANDLE MYSELF!"

This took us both my surprise, me because of why she had done it, her because she had unknowingly admitted it. We didn't speak to each other all night, and slowly drifted away into a dreamless sleep. The next day we ate some more meat, barely even looking at each other.

"We should fight them sometime today." I said afterwards. "My wound has pretty much healed. And also because I'm not sure if I can handle another day in this arena."

"Me too." she stood up. "Let's go."

We packed our bags and were soon prepared to go searchfor them. As I was about to step into the trees she took hold of my shoulder.

"Let me take Glitterbomb." she whispered with a hint of sadness. "Please."

I stared into her hopeful eyes and sighed. This could have been the last words we had ever spoken to each other, the last time that we read into each other's minds. My last look at her full image, her golden locks, her ocean blue eyes, her body being so skinny from living on the streets. Her full black body suit covered in dirt from all of those nights of sleeping on the floor. Her necklace with a small, harmless thorn on it to represent her hostility. Her hands so tightly gripping holf of her sword that they were turning white. This could be the last moment in which I saw her alive, I had to take it in.

"Sure." I smiled at her for the last time, expressing how I felt. "We will do this together."

"Together." she agreed.

We stepped into the trees, checked our backpacks breifly and set off for Glitterbomb's blood. This would be our final fight.

And we wouldn't stop until they were both dead.


	31. Chapter 30

Freya's PoV

We stood in a circle, the Gamemakers and I, staring down into a hologram of the arena. We called it the Spectator Room for a reason. It was very detailed, some people would believe that it was an exact, realistic, miniature model of the real thing, only when your hand could go straight through, it was difficult to see it as anything else. I felt as though I was in that arena, and although I really wasn't, I was definitely in the Games. I still considered myself an idiot for thinking Kayla was dead, after just one knife. It made me sick to watch her slowly recover, that beast of a fourteen year old. Barely teens, and they were both larger threats than the strongest adults put together. They each had very similar traits to their relatives, Katniss Everdeen and Alma Coin. Kayla was smart and quick, like Katniss. Lola was sharp but cunning, like Alma. They may have been young, much younger than either of their relatives in the Great Rebellion, but they still wanted to see me succumb to them. I wouldn't let them do it, they had to be disposed of. We had to take one step at a time to breaking them, but there was one question I needed to know.

"Who sent them the goggles?" I demanded to the other Gamemakers.

"No one knows, president." one of them peeked their head up, risking eye contact. "Perhaps, someone rooting for Kayla and Lola?"

"Was that a good question of mine?" I asked with my coldest tone.

"Yes, president." she shrunk until her neck was shoved into her white jacket.

"Well, when I ask good questions, I expect good answers." I peered over hear as her head became barely visible, joining her neck. "Do not waste my time."

"Yes-yes, president."

I enjoyed my power over her briefly. If only Lola and Kayla could follow her ways of obeying me.

"I have a _better_ idea." another said, holding a tablet and fixing a hard glare at the other girl. "We should replay the exact scene where she read the letter, and zoom in closely to see what it is. Surely the sponsor couldn't have just left it anonymous."

"No cameras would ever be able to get that close." I snarled. "I am going to have to enter the hologram."

The other Gamemakers gasped at my strange request. No one, in the history of the Hunger Games, had ever even considered this, let alone done it. To them, it was fantasy. To me, it was the perfect solution. It wasn't until I fixed raised my eyebrows that each one of them slowly began to pipe down.

"It shouldn't take long to make a life like version, it took us five minutes to make this tiny version." I barked, before turning to the Gamemaker with the tablet. "Increase the hologram by a hundred times. Prepare to play it at the exact time those two are reading that letter. I want it done by the time I get back."

I stormed off, and because actions speak louder than words, I slammed the door behind me, causing vases to crumble. I sped to my apartment, I ignored anyone with any sort of request. They were all the same, they were all, "Ooh, a girl in District One starved to death, what should we do with their body," or, "Oh poor us, a stray jabberjay got stuck in a tree in District Three and it's bursting our eardrums." I have no time for them, I always say, I have bigger problems to be dealing with. Their complaints were nothing, when those two idiots in the arena could cause a major Rebellion. And then that pathetic jabberjay would never deafen anyone more than the screams as the victims of the war. This wasn't about their deaths, this was that people would blame me for it.

I sprung onto my velvet couch, very soft. I studied my apartment, a massive television, a queen-sized bed, about ten shelves for keeping items. That was when one thing caught to my eye, a photo of my mother and me. There was no time to burn it, just like I did with the others, I knew that I might as well take a look. I was about five, and she was looking much younger than when I poisoned her. I still had no regrets, she would not view my opinions as mature, even when I was sixteen. I knew it was about time I took matters into my own hands. It was easier than sliding a knife down a cake, I simply made her coffee and then simply entered in about three tablespoons of arsenic. The hard part was buying it from an illegal drug store. I assured him I just wanted to kill some annoying rats, but he didn't buy it and so neither did I. I snuck into the store, late at night, and told mother that I was going clubbing. Apparently to adults, that's all teenagers do at night, so she reluctantly let me go. I wore a black dress and a black purse, stealing it was especially simple, for there were no security cameras, not even an alarm. And just like that, I was president. I offered to kill anyone who objected, saying that there should be an election, for I had been silenced all of my life. It was my turn to be the one who silenced.

Her poisonous death was quicker than expected, meanwhile Florence just refused to succumb to it. I would have given her more, but then people would get more suspicious of me killing her to become Head Gamemaker.

I heard a small knock on the door, interrupting my rare moment of silence.

"What is it now?" I yelled back, with a harsh tone in my voice.

"It is ready, president. The hologram is ready." it responded fearfully.

I swung open the door, nearly hitting the person with it. They sprung back, clearly not wanting to be the one to order me to see it. I left them behind with no acknowledgement of thanking, showing no ounce of pity for them. I opened the doors, letting them see me in my regular fierce mood. I saw no large hologram, everything just the same as it was before.

"So where is it, then?" I demanded, they knew the harsh punishments of wasting my time.

"Right here, president." a shivering lady stood next to a door. "Just through here."

I walked towards the black door, opening the entrance to the fake arena.

The one with the tablet came towards me with a walkie-talkie and handed it to me. "Tell us if you need to pause it, or go forward, or anything." she left, knowing not to spend my time waiting for me to respond.

"The scene is playing right now." the lady whispered. "Good luck."

I turned on her, "I won't need it, you fool."

I entered the arena, and almost felt the need to dodge the trees as I ran towards Lola and Kayla, briefly forgetting that I could just run through them. Then I found the space they were in. Their supplies were spread out around them, and they had the letter spread on the floor. Lola's shining blonde hair dangled down, and Kayla's daring blue eyes, the same as her father's, staring contently on the letter. They were so still as they read it, I nearly forgot that it was still recording.

"Pause it." I ordered into the recorder.

"Now paused, president."

I had been very strict about them calling me by my class, and not by my name. I didn't want to be known to them as a friend, I wanted to be known to them as their boss. The line between those two were anything except thin, and soon I was as far away from friend as I could possibly have been. It had finally worked out in my favour, I knew all of my clients and avoxes feared me more than battling ten of the Capitol's strongest mutts. Exactly as I liked it.

I knelt down next to the two holograms and read the letter.

Once I had read it I immediately got up and rushed out of the arena. A rebellion was coming for me as I took each step, and I was going to have to fight them! I rushed to the Spectator Room and yelled to the Gamemakers.

"Upgrade the tracker jacker's skills by ten and plant them around the Cornucopia! They must be killed once and for all!" I demanded.

"That will take at least an hour!" The distressed tablet girl said.

"I don't care! Just do it!"

No one made any objections after that. I rushed to another person, the army co-ordinator.

"Prepare the soldiers!" I yelled. "Every single one of them to guard this tower!"

"That's impossible..." he began.

"JUST DO IT!" I screamed, and he immediately took to action.

Kayla and Lola, this was all their fault!

They were going to have to die!


	32. Chapter 31

We sprinted to the Cornucopia, carrying all of our weapons and wearing our goggles. We had hid all of our other supplies in a nearby tree, that way if by any means we had to flee, which we had no ideal intention of doing, we wouldn't be completely hopeless. As soon as we got there, we immediately spotted Glitterbomb and Colin under the shelter of the horn, Glitterbomb sharpening her knife, Colin weaving vines together. As desperate as we were, we weren't going to go straight over there and kill them. Nothing had ever been that easy. Blossom learned that the hard way when she tried to dispose of Lola. We were still under the covers of the trees. We could see them, they couldn't see us. We had the advantage.

"Follow me." I whispered so gently that I could barely hear it myself.

We tiptoed around to the back of the Cornucopia, being as silent as possible. Glitterbomb and Colin had still not seen us, and we were inconspicuous enough, but at this point in the Games, we had everything to lose. I snapped a branch ever so often, and nearly punched myself in fury when I did, but Lola just seemed to wade through them effortlessly, as thouh she were part of them herself.

"How do you do it?" I asked.

"Believe me, I had to sneak into many places to find food." Lola said it as if she almost missed it. Not quite, but almost. "I guess it's just one of my many street smarts."

When we faced the back of the Cornucopia, where we were certain they wouldn't see us from inside, we still decided to crawl through the grass. In the grass, since there were few branches to avoid, we both managed to stay mute enough for a dog to barely hear it. Finally, as we got to the Cornucopia, began the next step, climbing. Climbing the horn was a task difficult enough without having to be soundless. Trees had branches, laid out similar to a ladder, meanwhile we would have to lift each other up onto the horn. I turned to Lola, she was staring at it thoughtfully before facing me as well, we were sharing the same thoughts.

"You first." she murmured, arching her back towards the horn, clearly implying that she wanted me to climb on her.

I could tell that she didn't want to do it, any slips for me could result in her having a broken spine. But we had to survive the Games, we had to kill them. I took a deep breath before stepping one foot onto her back, hearing her slight wince of pain, though she was trying hard to hold it in. I put the other foot on and I heard another wince, this one being slightly louder, but still impossible for anyone inside the Cornucopia to hear. I didn't want to give her too much pain, so I leapt up onto the horn almost immediately. I struggled up onto it, though once I swung one leg around, the other seemed a lot easier. I let a hand fall down for Lola to hang on to. She jumped as high as possible, and then let me pull her up the rest of the way.

After we were both stable on the Cornucopia, we were unsure of what to do next. I toyed with the idea of lighting a flame and swinging it through the hole, but with me unable to see where they were, there was a very small chance I would hit either of them. It would also reveal where we were. It wouldn't work.

"They have to come out at some point." Lola whispered. "Drop a spear on them as they come out."

"I'd lose a spear." I pointed out.

"You got any other ideas?" she hissed.

She had a point, I had nothing. If her idea didn't work, it would reveal where we were and that was it. There was a low chance of death, so we might as well have given it a go. But until then, we eavesdropped on their suprisingly loud voices, biased to the fact that we could maybe hear them, no matter how far we were in the trees.

"Let me hunt her." Colin spoke differently than I had ever heard him before. Before the venom had hacked into his brain, he spoke softly, always remembering to be quiet. Afterwards, his voice was so harsh and full of rage, it was easier to listen to a cat scratching a chalk board.

"You aren't strong enough." she attempted to keep him down. "You'll just die. And also, we agreed that as long as I nursed you, I'd get to kill her with one of my many unique deaths."

It didn't take me long to realise they were talking about me. I winced thinking about the gory death Glitterbomb would have in store for me if I did end up in her clutches. I refused to let Mama watch that on live television, or Dad, or Miss Yin, or any of my classmates. Just, no one. I refused to let anyone watch it.

"You can kill her, but at least let me wound her! I also want some part in the killing! It's me who's been hurt by her!"

Actually, I wanted to say, I never hurt you. Not you, not Lola, Glitterbomb forced me to wound her. I killed Blossom to save Lola. So in other words, I have hurt few people so far for my own amusement. Ask Glitterbomb about that, Colin.

"We've all been hurt by her." Glitterbomb kept trying to soothe him. "Don't you want to see in horrifying pain?"

"I don't care if it's painful!" he screamed. "She is life threatening! Painful or not, I just want her dead!"

"She is going to die. I will see to it." she spoke with sudden determination.

"No, I will see to it!" Colin argued. "You would have nursed me even without the bet!"

I could tell from the long following silence that although she failed to admit it, he was right. He had bested her. Forget her love of blood, and her quivering aim, he had dug into her heart and found her true weakness. Losing. This was the first time anyone had gotten on top of her, and it just happened to be her lover who would never love her back.

"Well, I do it because I love you, Colin Mainstone." she croaked. "And despite how you refuse to love me back, one day you may be grateful for these days. Trust me."

"What have you ever done to make me able to trust you?" he shot back. "I'm going to go kill those two brats, especially her, and you're not stopping me!"

I heard footsteps, and a swing of a backpack, he was going to leave their shelter! This was our time to kill him! I took out my spear, no way was I going to lose my trident, and as soon as the footsteps got close to the mouth of the horn, I let go of my spear and watched it fall. It should have killed him, or at least confused him enough to easily finish him off. Only, Glitterbomb had leapt to the height of Colin's head, toppling him over with her as she caught hold of the spear.

"Now look what I've done, I've saved your life." she whispered into his ear.

That was when his bloodshot eyes turned towards me. His kind face shot a menacing glare as he shoved Glitterbomb off him to rise to his feet. With all his strength he ripped the spear out of Glitterbomb's hands, aimed it at me, and let it release. Only, I caught it at last second, the exact opposite result he had planned. Well out of all of that, at least I still had my throwing spear. I grinned at them both, surprised and furious. Then, the unexpected happened. Colin took a great leap, swung hold of my leg, and threw me to the ground. Lola jumped on his back leading him away from me by biting his ears.

"They'll go clean off if you don't back off from her!" she threatened, biting harder the next time.

Colin screamed in pain, Lola reached for her sword to finish him off. Unfortunately, before she could do so, Glitterbomb dug her knife into one of her cuts on her leg that had barely healed. Lola screamed in pain, but she refused to release her weapon or of Colin. Everyone was occupied, except me. Colin was trying to throw Lola off his back, Lola was trying to stab him, Glitterbomb was trying to cut Lola enough to get her off. I realised then that I'd have to do something against my will. I'd have to kill Colin.

I raised my trident and aimed for his chest, but it was as if the old me back home was tugging me backwards and screaming, "Don't do it!". I tried shoving her off, only her heart was almost larger than her stubbornness. She didn't get off until I told her that Glitterbomb was wounding Lola. It was either Lola or him. Only then did she reluctantly take her strong grip off me. I leaned forward, this wasn't Colin's fault, I would still give him a short death. I took a deep breath, braced myself, wanting to do it before she returned. I didn't want to do it, none of this was his fault. I just had no choice! I let out a small cry while inserting my trident into his heart.

Lola collapsed as he did, trying to forget about how much blood she had just lost. Glitterbomb let go of her knife, allowing me to pull it out of Lola's leg. She was close to passing out, any other person would have, no one else had her perseverance. Glitterbomb knelt by Colin, stunned. Her skin was paler than I had ever seen it before. She did everything she could to prevent her tears spilling. Meanwhile I, the one who killed him, was less successful. My tears weren't multiple, just a couple of drips. I knew that I had done the right thing, so why was I upset? His mother had even requested his quick death, and it was! He had only a second of pain, not even enough time to realise I had stabbed him! I did the right thing, I did the right thing! If I had let him live, he woul have returned home, leaving the people with no hope, and the rebellion with no reason.

Glitterbomb suddenly jumped to me like an ape, holding her knife, causing me to stagger back. Her face was tomato in rage.

"YOU KILLED COLIN!" she lunged at me, and I only just dodged it. "YOU COWARD! YOU TRAITOR! YOU MONSTER! YOU FOOL!"

Slowly, Lola began to rise to her feet, too weak to kill a person, but with the determination to fight an army.

"You saw it coming." she stated. "You knew that when you put the venom in his eyes."

"YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE!" she turned on her. "I HAVE LIVED ALL MY LIFE HAVING PEOPLE LOVE ME, ONLY I DIDN'T LOVE THEM BACK! DO YOU KNOW HOW THAT FEELS?"

She dug her knife into another of Lola's cuts. She fell to the floor, more light-headed and sluggish than I had ever seen her before. I wouldn't let her remove everyone I loved. I shoved her over and held her down to make sure she wouldn't get up. She wasn't able to move, it was my time to get her back.

"Time to treat you with something I like to call, "Your own medicince"." she squirmed and screamed under my clutches. "Let's check under your arm, hm?"

She resisted more than ever at the sound of this, increasing the chances of there being a cut there. However when I rolled up her sleeve, I saw something very strange. It was so shocking, I began to stagger backwards. It was a stamp of some sort. An emblem. Similar to a mockingjay pin, only red and a fire mutt instead. Fire mutt...

This wasn't just any emblem.

This was Freya's emblem!

I grabbed my trident and held it to her neck. I was so confused about why it was there, so confused that I immediately wanted answers.

"Why is it there?" I asked harshly.

"I don't know!" she resisted against the knife.

"I will kill you." I threatened, getting the blade even closer. "Don't think I won't."

I could sense how Lola was glaring at me from behind as if to whisper, "Just kill her! Forget about why it's there!". I knew I should have, but this was my chance. My only chance.

"Fine." she choked. "Before the games, being the district which makes the luxury items, District One sort of knew in advance about the whole Hunger Games."

"That explains nothing." the trident was now touching her throat.

"We began training for the games earlier. Stations were built for us to train. Freya came ever so often to watch us, and she saw that I was above everyone else. She smiled at me and asked me if I could meet her outside of the training centre."

"And you said yes?"

"Why wouldn't I? She's president! She said that she'd get me reaped and give me an extra billion quid if I did one thing. Kill you and Lola. It was a perfect offer, so she gave me this stamp on my arm to make sure no one backed out of the deal." she clearly had thought of it as a great idea. "Can I be let go now?"

I took in the sudden news. Glitterbomb had always been after us, but we never really knew why. We never did anything to her, we never even hurt her. We just assumed it was because of the encounter Colin and I had with Angelina and Aphrodite. We assumed after that they told Glitterbomb we were freaks.

"Got any last words for your Freya?" I asked, digging the trident a little deeper, drawing a drop of blood.

"Yes. I want my money to be paid to my sister." she croaked. "Also, your goggles are so last season."

I had almost forgotten I had them on, so it took me aback a little to find them on my head. I was going to kill Glitterbomb, this was my chance. I swung my trident, and took aim for her throat...

Before I heard a strange, surprisingly loud buzzing sound. I looked up, and found a swarm of tracker jackers, heading for us. Only these tracker jackers were different to the ones I saw on the clip of Mama's hunger games. They were bigger, stronger, scarier. These had to be sent by Freya, she had changed her mind. She wanted us all dead.

"Go." I could just hear Lola whisper. "They can't touch water."

"I'm not leaving you!" I cried.

"Kayla," Lola said, "one of us has to win."

I quickly dug my trident into Glitterbomb, making her death even faster than Colin's. I didn't care if her body really deserved to cuts, to have her skin slowly peel off to reveal burning flesh, I had to save myself! I didn't even bother to take out the trident, I just sprinted faster than I had ever run in my life. The lake we had camped by was not too far from the Cornucopia, if only I could just make it a little further. I could hear them buzzing from a while, they were very fast creatures, made by the Capitol in war and improved by Freya in the games. I could soon hear the pouring of water. Water! Only I could also soon hear the buzzing get louder. As soon as I saw the lake, I shoved pass the twigs and leapt in. The tracker jackers fought against the water, trying to reach me, only Lola was right. They really couldn't touch water. They cleared off pretty quickly, only I stayed in the water until my lungs felt as though they were about to burst.

As soon as my head was about an inch above it, a large tube came over me and sucked me into a large hovercraft. For a minute, I perked up, thinking that this was the rebellion, only realised that only Freya would be able to hack through the forcefield. I was taken into a room, where I was thrown into a hospital bed. Assistants came towards me and injected something into me. That's all I remembered.

When I woke up, I was in a fancy, luxury apartment. I was in a long, thin dressing gown and I was surrounded by my prep team, all beaming at me graciously.

"We thought you would never wake up, sleepyhead!" one exclaimed.

"Congratulations!" another cried. "You won the games!"

"And now it's our time to make you over, one last time!" another smiled slightly emotionally.

I wanted to ask so much, such as why was I here, why was I no longer in the arena. But, I saved it until end, letting them throw my hair into a bun and cover up my scars. They failed to remove my large scar when I was stabbed, but I allowed it. No one would even see it. I wore a long dress, covered in roses, and a small, dark red headband to match. I wore mild, natural makeup to complete the look. When I was done, they thrusted me in front of the mirror. I looked like the girl back from home, she never knew she would end up like this.

"What am I getting dressed for?" I asked first.

"You are getting dressed for your victor's ceremony!" one piped. "Freya will interview you, to start a tradition."

I sulked. Freya? Not anyone else? I guess back in the old Hunger Games, it was tradition for the president to interview the victors before crowning them.

"Where's Lola?"

It was their turn to sulk. "She got bitten to death by at least a hundred tracker jackers. Chin up, at least you're still alive!"

So it was true. Lola had sacrificed herself for me. My best friend, the one who had gripped me by the shirt and told me I didn't deserve to exist. That person made me have to subtly shed a tear in front of my stylists. Lola was really dead. And unlike me, she wasn't going to suddenly wake up.

"Cinna wants to see you before you leave! He wants to escort you!"

They left, leaving me to wait for him. What were tributes supposed to do when they won? Celebrate? That Lola and Colin were both dead? That twenty four innocent children had succumbed to Freya? And that's something that deserves a ceremony?

It wasn't long before Cinna showed up, giving me no time to think. He took me out the door and led me up the stairs. Neither of us said a word, he knew I needed the silence. Before I was anounced for the interviews, he handed me a sharp, well-made knife.

"The rebels told me to give you this." he said. "There's a pocket under your dress. You know what to do."

I reached below my dress and put it in.

"This could kill you." I said. "I've had enough people I love die."

"You have to do it." he whispered emotionally. "You have to save us all. It's either me or hundreds of innocent children."

I tried to object, only he was right. We hugged for the last time, embracing each other fully. We both cried, knowing this would be the last time we would see each other. If it wasn't for him, we wouldn't have been sponsored, we wouldn't have been notived, nowhere near as many people would have volunteered for the rebellion. It was all him.

I went out for my interview, and I was immediately blinded by large spotlights and deafened by the crowd's cheers. I was seated on a large, golden seat, right across from Freya. My nemisis, the one who had caused all of this. The one who wished Lola dead. Who wanted both of us to suffer just because of our parents. I struggled to answer her questions about how I found it in the arena without gritting my teeth. In the end, when she put on my crown, My headband began to glow, and smoke travelled all around me. It didn't hurt, it was just a tickling feeling, but I knew Cinna had done this. When it was done, my dress was still the shame shaoe, only it was black, with dashings of red pointing downwards. He had turned me into a thorn. Freya was taken aback, and staring at me like a hawk, this was my chance.

"I'd just like to thank Freya, for killing innocent children in the worst possible way. For destroying many things I've loved."

I reached into my dress, found the knife in the same place and stabbed Freya. She collapsed into the crowds. Everyone gasped, some in shock, some in panic, but most seemed pleased. I was carried off stage and had some more stuff injected into me until I fell unconscious.

When I woke up, I was at home, with Mama and Dad. They seemed pleased, Mama was crying, Dad held my arm as if he'd never let it go.

They told me I had been asleep for a day, I was injected with a sleeping drug, to make sure that no one would kill me, and so it would all be over when I woke up. I survived my trial, no one would let me go behind bars after that, not after I had just saved many children. The judge ruled this against all the reluctant supporters of Freya, and they quickly elected someone else, who had made a public promise on tv to never allow the Hunger Games, and had the arena destroyed.

"Population is an issue, but forcing children to fight each other for pure, brutal entertainment is definitely not a way to do it." she quoted. "Are we really all monsters?"

Of course, not everything is happily ever after. Yarn, Tilly, Colin, Lola, even Glitterbomb... none of them deserved this. No one did. But I have to keep reminding myself that they're in a better place now. Though I still get nightmares, about the arena, about everything, especially when I was stabbed. I still have that scar, and it still hurts. Everyone in my family can never watch a clip of it, or else a panic attack triggers.

But in ways, I learned so many things. How valuable just one life can be, how sometimes killing one person can save many others. And most of all, never look at a kid the same way as their parents, that was exactly how Lola died.

But I know that if Lola or Colin could see me, they'd be smiling from ear to ear.

And most of all,

I was finally away from danger.

I was home.


	33. Epilogue

It wasn't long before the baby turned up. He had inherited nearly the opposite genes from his parents. Despite how small he was, he had some smooth, blonde curls, just like Dad's. He had grey eyes, just like Mama's. He was a very beautiful little baby, his eyes so squinted that you could tell he could barely see. He was born at the right time, now there were no more Hunger Games, for good this time. When I held him, I suddenly felt what he was feeling. Hungry, tired, but most of all, new to the world. Confused. We named him Kyro, Kyro Everdeen. Mama told me a secret, she had a small soft spot for names beginning with K.

I became a bit of a celebrity at school, everyone wanted to sit next to me and hear about the Games. And I told them the truth, they were torture. They forced you to kill people you didn't even know. They were vile. That my friends were very lucky to not have to do it.

The next night I held little Kyro, I began to whisper to him.

"You are going to be safe." I told him, and watching him smile a bit. "I will never let anyone hurt you, I promise."

I kissed his smooth head before returning him to his crib.


End file.
